


Mostly Nordic one shots

by helloiloveiceland



Series: Mostly one shots [1]
Category: Geography (Anthropomorphic)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:41:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 27,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23221141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helloiloveiceland/pseuds/helloiloveiceland
Summary: This are one shots about some countries. I have my own versions of their personificacions so don't expect them to be like in your favorite anime or comic. A lot of chapters will be about historical events, others are me shipping. The one shots are quite short, so I will sometimes write a lot of chapters about the same topic. Also, the first ones are terrible, the last ones are still bad, but not as much as beforr
Relationships: Denmark/Norway/Iceland, Faroe Islands/Greenland, France/Germany (Anthropomorphic), Sweden/Finland
Series: Mostly one shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001610
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	1. Prologue or explanation

First of all, I'm not trying to offend anyone and I apologise if it looks like it.

The one shots will be about different years and characters, I don't follow any order. When I finish this story, I'll make a chronological order.

The story is in English so we can understand what they are saying. Countries speak every language that's official in their territory.

Countries are like us, they have emotions and can be hurt. Every one of them lives in a house and the rooms represent their most important cities, with the capital city as the bedroom. Autonomous territories also live in those houses, with the country they belong to.

Countries dress up as their flag. For example, Iceland dresses with a lot of blue and a bit of white and red. They kind of look stereotypical. Autonomous territories have a necklace with the flag of the country they belong to. Countries look like they are 17 years old. Autonomous territories look like 16-year-olds. They don't grow up. Non-autonomous territories (or what we call parts of the country) look like they are 12 and are almost considered children. If someone goes from territory to country, they grow up, and the opposite if they loose independence.

Sometimes they are found, others they are created, it depends on if they were discovered or made (when a country splits or unifies).

Their gender or sexual orientation has never mattered to them, they think caring about it it's a human thing. Because of that, a country that is a woman can be really sexist or a gay one can be homophobic.

Most of them are bisexual, and they usually have a serious relationship and some one night stands. Most of the time, everyone knows it doesn't have a meaning and they all agree. Other times, they cheat.

The only humans they talk to are their Presidents/Prime ministers (and basically who rules the country) and that changes their personalities. Countries' personalities change when they have a new ruler. For example: the UK talks to his Prime minister and Queen. Because of of that, they may look like different characters in several chapters. Think about them as people, some have "emo" fases, others "dyed hair". With countries it's more or less the same. One day they are a monarchy, then a republic, the other communist, and then fascist.

They can't change what their ruler think nor tell them things that will change their opinions. The ruler is who tells the country what to think.

When there's a war between countries, they fight until someone wins or surrenders. If they are in a civil war, they split in two and fight against each other.

Some quick descriptions:

Norway: He likes fish and is really independent. Everyone wants to be his friend but he is okay with the people he already knows.

Sweden: He loves people who are different, but not Denmark. It's really hard for him to make quick decisions. He also likes furniture.

Denmark: She is obsessed with her flag and hates Sweden. She is also a mermaid, because _The little mermaid_ is a classic Danish tale.

Iceland: They are non binary, being one of the countries that is more accepting with that. They love freedom and peace. They can't deal with emotions.

Faroe Islands: She is really innocent and everyone thinks she is really cute, she has much more than that but no one seems to see it.

Greenland: He is really tall and likes to complain about Denmark. He won't leave her house though. He likes trolling, because of his name.

Åland: He makes a lot of jokes and would like to be Swedish. He's sad because a lot of people don't even know his name.

Sami: Everyone always forget about her and she has been through a lot. She always tries to smile and be positive. She's very sweet.


	2. 1814: Iceland wants to be Independent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Kalmar Union between Norway, Denmark and Sweden ended in 1523, after the Danish king Kristian II had murdered a lot of Swedish noblemen. Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands were parts of Norway. Norway and Denmark were together as a kingdom. Later, in 1814, after some wars between Danes and Swedes, Sweden managed to get Norway. Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland became a part of Denmark.

Iceland woke up feeling a little sick, they knew something had happened. They got out of the bedroom, touching their necklace. They stopped in the middle of the way noticing that the flag in the necklace was the Danish one. The island got scared and started running towards the living room. They found Greenland healing Denmark's wounds. Faroe was staring at Denmark, who couldn't stop crying.

"What happened?" asked Iceland.

"I lost against Sweden" said Denmark. "He took Norway with him, but not you. He didn't want my islands."

Iceland looked at Denmark in silence. She was devastated after loosing her lover. She was really pale, and was covered in blood. She looked like her own flag.

"This is unfair! I don't want to be Danish! Why did you start this rivalry!? You killed a lot of Swedes without thinking about the consequences and look what happened!" screamed Iceland.

"You don't have the right to tell me that. I couldn't have known this was going to happen" Denmark looked too weak to argue.

"I swear I will leave! I will and you will be alone. Maybe Faroe will follow my lead because I know she will want to! You destroyed the Kalmar Union and Denmark-Norway! You destroyed everything! You and your desire to be the most powerful! Can't you see that Sweden will never forgive you?"

"I wasn't the one that made Norway go away."

"Believe me, one day, I don't care if it will take a year or one hundred and thirty, I will get independence from you and I will finally be free!"

Denmark looked at her island with indifference in her eyes. She couldn't believe her eyes, Iceland was being too cruel to her.

"You will never be free, we share too many things. If you go away, you probably won't get rid of me and your kids will still learn Danish at school."

"Shut up!"

Iceland left, knowing that tears were going to fall soon. They loved Denmark, a lot, but they thought that situation had to end. They thought nothing would happen just because of some lies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything they said about the future has happened.


	3. 1919: Schleswig-Holstein after WW1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> World war 1 ended in 1919 and peace came after some treaties. One of them was the Treaty of Versailles. Denmark didn't participate in the war, but still got back the north of Schleswig-Holstein from Germany. This territory had been Danish until some years before, when it became German. Because Denmark had been neutral in the war, no one was expecting that. This treaty humiliated Germany and made it pay a lot of money, reduce it's army, etc. It was one of the reasons why Germany was filed with hate and years later became a really cruel dictatorship

Denmark's POV

I heard someone knocking on the door, so I went to see who it was. I found France, Germany and someone I hadn't seen in a long time. He was wearing a necklace with my flag, meaning that they were mine again. My neighbour looked defeated and couldn't stop looking at the floor.

"Come on, you know what you have to do" said France laughing.

"I'm sorry, Denmark. Please accept the north of Schleswig-Holstein" whispered Germany while that territory steeped forward.

I had lost that territory some time ago and I didn't want to get it back because of another war, I was done fighting. I thought we didn't have to lose more lives for that. Schleswig-Holstein looked at me, a bit scared. He got passed me and went inside of my house.

"Thank you?"

"She lost the Great War, she has to return the territories she stole" said France.

"But I haven't done anything to get him back, I don't deserve this"

"You deserve it more than her, she hurt everyone so much… You have to understand that she has to pay"

Germany was looking at the floor, I had never seen her so angry. I had no idea that hate would be so real and would hurt so many people. If I had known what that angriness was going to do to her, I would have done everything I could to stop it. That was the day I realised that the sweet Germany I had known was gone and it would be tough to get her back. I should have done something, maybe stop France. I didn't do anything, I thought there wouldn't be more wars. I should have… done something, anything. Anything except what I did.

"Now, go away" ordered France.

She went home as quickly as possible and I stared at the French nation. I should have noticed how she was being too harsh, after the war everyone was different, but I didn't care at that moment. Then I understood why she did it, we had been together some time ago, but the attraction was still there.

"Now that you are here, you could visit a bit of my land" I said in a voice tone that let her know what I really wanted.

"Can you show me around?"

"I can show you Copenhagen, a beautiful city."

"It's strange, I've never been there."

"It's been a long time since I last went to Paris."

I let her in and I gave her even more reasons to remember me. I regret this decision so much.


	4. 2017: Norway and Iceland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In next chapters, we'll see more about this and also some things that happened before.  
> Also, Iceland was a part of Norway before it was Danish. The Norwegians were the first to "find" Iceland (without talking about the Irish) and they called it that because they saw a lot of ice.  
> Bergen is a Norwegian city, it represents the living room.

Norway's POV

Iceland had entered inside my house and I felt like my heart started to go faster. I loved the ð barrette in their hair. I loved them so much. I felt strange because Denmark was dating both of us, I still didn't know how I felt about it. I loved her, but I also loved Iceland. I spent some time in Bergen with them, I had missed the Icelandic nation so much. I was thrilled to have them with me again.

"Thanks for letting me stay here" said Iceland putting their hand over mine. 

"Don't worry, you can even use your old room. I know it's been some time, but it's still there."

"I miss you."

I looked at the blue in their eyes, without being able to believe what I had heard. They got up to straddle me. I touched their face, waiting for something to happen. We stayed still for an entire minute, so I decided to lean for a kiss. When our lips touched each other, I felt Iceland's arms behind my neck while I put my hands on their hips. The kiss was soft, and somehow cold. I didn't call them Iceland for nothing. When we broke the kiss, we stared at the other for some minutes.

"I love you" I finally said.

They looked at me in silence and I got scared. Iceland opened his mouth and tried to talk.

"Ég elska þig líka. Norway, I know this is really sudden but… do you want to be my boyfriend?"

I smiled and I nodded various times while saying "ja". That was one of the best days of my life. I had been waiting for it a lot of years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ég elska þig líka (Icelandic) = I love you too  
> Ja (Norwegian) = Yes


	5. 2020 and 1944: Denmark's feelings about Iceland's independence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are quite similar because they are all Germanic languages. Finnish is Finno-Ugric, so it's a really different language from the rest.
> 
> Iceland became a part of Denmark with the Treaty of Kiel, 1814.
> 
> When WW2 started, Nazi Germany invaded Denmark. The Danes surrendered in 6 hours, they feared of what could happen if they fought back. They still didn't lose all power because they "behaved" and when they didn't, they were kind of forgiven because they were considered Aryans. After that, Norway was also invaded. In 1944, Iceland became Independent from Denmark.
> 
> Denmark's jokes filled with sarcasm and black humor.

Denmark's POV

"How do you say 'volcano' in your languages?" asked Iceland.

"'Vulkan'" answered Norway.

"I say 'vulkan' too" said Sweden.

"Me too" I said.

"That's boring, I call it 'eldfjall'" told Iceland.

"Why are you like this?" asked Norway.

"It literally means fire mountain."

Iceland looked so happy to have their own words, without English or Latin versions.

"You are tearing this family apart" said Sweden.

"If you talk to Finland, it will be even worse."

"Island…" said Norway while trying not to laugh.

"Because of things like this, I didn't cry when you left" I said.

I ment is as a joke. I guess I was too proud to admit the reality. Even though they all knew it.

"You spent entire years crying and we could all hear your screams" muttered Norway.

Flashback

I started screaming. I was feeling physical pain, like someone had cut off a part of my body. It hurt so much, I couldn't stop crying. Everything inside of me felt like it was dying. I couldn't stay quiet, the screams were the only escape from reality I had.

"Are you okay!?" asked Germany while opening the door.

I looked at her in the eye and I tried not to let myself break. It was all her fault, I was suffering because of her. The entire world was on flames because of her evilness. But she looked worried, she didn't want me to suffer. That made it even worse.

"They went away… They hate me!" I said trying not to suffocate with the tears.

"Who went away, Schatz?" she said while trying to touch my face.

"Iceland."

I moved away from her. And also from her uniform. I felt like the swastika was looking at me and I got too scared. I hated that symbol more that I've ever anything else. I still do, I always will.

"They are a stupid island, you shouldn't worry about a small piece of ice. You have me."

"They have been with me since Kiel. I thought they loved me… Now Greenland and Faroe will leave me too. Everyone will leave me."

"I won't leave you until my last flag is on fire."

She looked like she really cared. For a moment I saw her humanity. I knew she only cared about me because she thought we were equals. The fact that she was still human scared me. She could care, but she didn't want to, she loved hate so much more

"It's not the same" I said.

"Why not?"

"Because you kidnapped me. It would be stupid to leave me now, wouldn't it?

She didn't answer me.

"And that's not all! You don't love like the others, you just see race, not feelings."

"At least I lo… like you. You should have that in mind.

End of the flashback

"It wasn't so dramatic" I said.

They all knew I was lying. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Island (Norwegian) = Iceland  
> Schatz (German) = Pet name that literally means treasure


	6. 2020: Sweden's instagram

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sweden and Denmark have social media. You can find them on Instagram, Twitter and others.
> 
> This two countries have been through a lot of wars so there's still some rivalry between them. In 2016, they had a war on Twitter.
> 
> The Öresund/Øresund bridge connects Denmark and Sweden. More exactly, Copenhagen and Malmö.
> 
> This actually has context, I'm the one who commented that.

Sweden's POV

I woke up and the first thing I saw was Denmark. She was still asleep next to me. I hated her so much… I grabbed my phone to post something on Instagram. Later, I was reading comments and answering them. I saw one that caught my attention "@ swedense , what is your relationship with @ denmarkdotdk ?"

I smiled, watching my frenenemy sleep in my own bed. I didn't know what to answer. I didn't want to let them know that there was a little more than hate in our relationship. Maybe desire, affection even. Either way, I wasn't going to tell that to my followers. I answered "are we talking about the bridge?". Denmark moved a little, but still had her eyes closed.

"I think someone on the internet knows about what happened between us last night" I said.

"Lad mig sove"

"You know I can't understand you."

She turned around so I couldn't see her face. I thought I had heard a "hold din kæft, Sverige" but I ignored it. I looked at my phone and that same person had said "I think you two would make a great couple". I didn't answer that.

"Danmark, they are asking me about the Öresund bridge" I said.

"Then say it's spelled with an ø, the best letter of the best language in the entire world. You also have to say that I'm awesome."

"I can't stand you."

"If that were true, this would be the first time we woke up naked in Stockholm after a fight."

She turned around to face me. I saw her smile and I thought that she was right. I looked back at my phone and I saw someone else had commented "the bridge makes this ship real". I liked it, smiling to myself.

"I answer almost every comment that I get, that why they love me" I said.

"You post pictures every day, I don't. I think one per week is more than enough."

"I'm nicer."

"You're no one."

"Then why are you covering yourself with a blanket that has my flag?"

"Shut up."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lad mig sove (Danish) = Let me sleep
> 
> Hold din kæft, Sverige (Danish) = Shut up, Sweden
> 
> Danmark (Danish and Swedish) = Denmark


	7. 1944: Denmark's letter to Iceland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When WW2 started, Nazi Germany invaded Denmark. The Danes surrendered in 6 hours, they feared of what could happen if they fought back. They still didn't lose all power because they "behaved" and when they didn't, they were kind of forgiven because they were considered Aryan. After that, Norway was also invaded. In 1943, Denmark managed to evacuate the 92% of its Jews and take them to Sweden. In 17th June of 1944, Iceland became Independent from Denmark. The king of Denmark sent a letter to congratulate the Icelanders.

19th June, 1944

Hæ Iceland,

I think that's how you say hello in Icelandic, I hope I'm not wrong. Today I've talked to Germany, she said that I could see you and even talk to you. I know she only says that because I'm her "favorite fellow Aryan". I also think she lied. I will never get used to this, I hate myself for not running away. At least I know you are away from all of this. Enjoy your freedom. I know I'm selfish, but I miss you, I feel like there's something missing. You are missing. And you were a part of me, so it hurts.

I sent you an official letter to congratulate you. I hope you were able to receive it. I told Germany it was very important and she swore to me that you would get it. Maybe that's the only letter you have gotten, I have no idea.

We have spent so many years together, since the Treaty of Kiel. I want to congratulate you on getting what you had wanted for so long. I guess (our) house is empty without the two of us. I also guess that Faroe and Greenland are enjoying their loneliness (we both know they have been dating for a long time ago). At least I don't have to hear them (because hearing the Axis was much better ha ha… help).

I saw Norway yesterday, he was miserable. I guess we all are, in our own ways. I know I'm not suffering like some others are, but this shouldn't have happened at all. I try to help, I was able to save almost all of my Jews. You know I can't stand Sweden, but he helped me a lot in this. I still feel bad for those who weren't saved, not only mine, but everyone who has been killed in this madness.

I don't know what to do. Could you please come and see me some day? I need to talk to someone who isn't wearing nazi symbols in their clothes. Please, I need you. I miss you so much. I know I keep writing the same thing, I can't help it.

I don't know if it's true, but I think you hate me. I don't want that. I know I was cruel to you, so I deserve it. Do you want to know about my truth? Every night I spend hours trying to sleep, I haven't stopped crying for years. The others suffer because of how they get treated. If you had seen Poland's lifeless eyes, you would understand what I mean. That's why I'm suffering: I'm well treated. I feel nauseous every time I have to act like the "model country" Germany says I am.

I can say a lot of bad things about her, but I surrendered in 6 hours. It hurts to remember that. I was so scared, she was really powerful and I was nothing. I was scared of Copenhagen being destroyed, of my people being hurt. I'm a coward, I don't like fighting anymore.

I want to see you. I need to get out of here as soon as possible. Jeg elsker dig. I want to go home again. Please, find some help. I need to escape. Help me, Island. I need you. Stop running away from me. Please. Write to me. Stop ignoring me, it hurts.

Danmark.

_There were some tears in the paper, that had ruined some letters. Iceland had a feeling that they weren't Denmark's._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hæ (Icelandic) = Hey  
> Jeg elsker dig (Danish) = I love you  
> Island (Danish) = Iceland  
> Danmark (Danish) = Denmark


	8. 9c: Iceland's settlement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first Norseman that went to Iceland on purpose was the Norwegian Flóki Vilgerðarsonin, in the 9th century. He called it Iceland because there was a lot of ice. Before that, there were some Irish monks.

Norway's POV

Sweden and Denmark decided to accompany me in my trip to find new land. They thought I would get bored without them and I believe they were right.

"I don't think there will be anything to discover" said Denmark.

"I do, trust me, love, we will find new places going West.

I kissed her, with all the passion and emotion I felt. Sweden called us because he had seen land. We arrived there and finally stepped on ground again. I felt like something important was close, so I looked around. I had never seen a place like that, it looked unique. I heard a voice, then I moved forward, leaving my two friends behind. I found someone, they were another territory. They spoke in a strange language, I didn't understand anything. I felt bad because they looked scared. I wasn't sure if they were a boy or a girl, and that confused me.

"We're Vikings, if you don't belong to anyone, we'd like you to join us" I said calmly.

They looked at me, I could see they didn't trust me at all. I approached them but we were both walking towards the same direction. I tried to touch them, but the only thing I got was a furious arm movement, trying to tell me to stay away. Suddenly, a geyser rose next to me. I was very scared, I had never seen one of those.

"Norþweg! Get out of there!" screamed Sweden.

"Come back to us!" shouted Denmark.

I looked around, still fearing that new land I had in front of me. I could see a lot of snow and ice, it was a really cold place.

"The land of Ice…" I said looking at them "Ísland."

They looked at me with a fearful look. I grabbed their hand smiling. I made a gesture, to get Iceland to follow me. They did, we went to where Sweden and Denmark were.

"We have a new member of our family" I said proudly.

"You're adorable" said Denmark.

Iceland looked at her, wondering what she had said. I could see they both had connected as great friends.

"Hi, Ísland, welcome" said Sweden.

"You are going to be living with me from now on" I told Iceland.

They just looked at me, happy. I guess they felt quite alone until we arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Norþweg (Old Norse) = Norway  
> Ísland (Old Norse and Icelandic) = Iceland


	9. 1943: Germany and Denmark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't read this if you are sensitive to Nazi topics. I actually got upset myself while writing this.
> 
> When WW2 started, Nazi Germany invaded Denmark. The Danes surrendered in 6 hours, they feared of what could happen if they fought back. It also invaded some other countries. Danes still didn't lose all power because they "behaved" and when they didn't, they were kind of forgiven because they were considered Aryan. Germany was a dictatorship, leaded by Adolf Hitler. A lot of people were killed especially Jews. 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust and in total, 11 million people lost their lives, some of them homosexuals. In 1943, Denmark managed to evacuate the 92% of its Jews and take them to Sweden. Also in this year, the Danish Government was dissolved by the Germans.

Germany's POV

I returned home and I didn't even take any peace of my uniform off. I felt like terrorizing the countries I had in my basement. That's how I used to spend my time, making everyone who wasn't like me suffer. For some reason, loved prevailed and I went to another room. I stared at the poster in the door. "Dänemark" was written there. Without hesitation, I entered in the chamber.

"What do you want?" Denmark was never nice to me in those years.

It hurt me to see her gray eyes in the middle of a red sea. I felt really bad because I thought she didn't deserve to be sad. She was too good for this world, everything everyone would like to be. She was perfect, or that's what my twisted mind thought. I sat at her side, on her bed. I felt the irony of finally being in her bed, just not the way I would have liked it. I didn't understand why Hitler didn't like my love for the Danish nation. I told him a lot of times that it was okay because we were countries, not humans. I was too in love with her. I was a hypocrite myself, if I had been human, I would have ended up killed.

"I wanted to see you. You are the only perfect treasure in a mediocre and filthy world" I said.

"I'm not superior."

She always noticed the double meaning I gave to my romantic quotes.

"Yes, you are."

I touched her cheek, getting close to her face. She froze but I didn't kiss her lips. I kissed a bit to the side, just a bit. I did want to kiss her, but she didn't. She was scared of me.

"You are perfect, if I could I would lock myself with you in a room without any windows because you shine more than the sun."

Denmark smiled whilst a tear fell down her face. I remember she had loved me once, it was too much for me. I sat on her legs putting my arms behind her neck. We were really close and I got lost in her eyes.

"What happened to you?" she whispered touching my iron cross necklace.

"Nothing bad, I promise."

"One day you'll know I'm right."

Oh, she was right. Damn it, I was so wrong.

I wanted to make her mine, but I respected her. I knew she didn't want me, but I couldn't help it. She was pretty, smart, brave, honest… and Aryan. That's what I really cared about. She looked down but couldn't look at anything else that wasn't me. I was too close. I noticed her staring at my swastika, and how she started shaking.

"Ich hab mich in dich verliebt. Even though you let escape all your scum so I wouldn't get them."

"They are people, just like every other human."

"Don't compare my pure people with them! Ours are perfect, as I said: pure. Are you going to tell me that trash is like our populace? They destroyed me!"

"No! Hitler destroyed you!"

"He opened my eyes!"

I didn't like that Denmark didn't agree with my politics. She was my model country, and I wanted her to believe in my cause. Now it hurts to remember that I didn't listen to her.

I got up and I looked at her. She looked weak, but the armband she was wearing was seducing me. I could hear my heart accelerating, she was so beautiful. My symbols looked very good on her. It was the only peace of red I allowed her to wear, knowing that was the color of her flag.

"A lot of countries would kill for your position" I said.

"Then give it to them and leave me alone."

"I am the third Reich, the most powerful country in the entire world. Trust me, I won't leave you. You are too naive, you keep saying we are all the same, but we aren't. We look different than Greece, than China, we are not same."

"We deserve the same rights."

"If you keep thinking that, I may have to bomb you until you understand."

She looked at me, sure of what she was going to say.

"Put me in one of your gas chambers, I don't care about your false superiority."

"If you keep saying that, I'll do worst things to you than just dissolving your Government." I said sweetly before kissing her cheek.

I got out of her room, not sure if Denmark would complaining again. Fortunately for me, she wouldn't until some time later. She always said some things, but she wasn't so insolent anymore. At least I didn't make her suffer even more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dänemark (German) = Denmark  
> Ich hab mich in dich verliebt (German) = I have fallen in love with you


	10. 2014: Iceland and Denmark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In 1944, Iceland became Independent from Denmark
> 
> Even nowadays, Iceland still has some things from Denmark: children learn Danish, some famous people have their companies in Copenhagen, and also there are Icelanders that study in Denmark.
> 
> Denmark's jokes filled with sarcasm and black humor.

Iceland's POV

I heard someone knocking on my room's door, so I closed every website on my phone. I blocked it, only I knew the password and that made me feel more comfortable. I didn't want anyone looking at my internet history. I opened the door and I found Denmark staring at me. I asked myself how did she had gotten in my house, but I guessed she had keys.

"What do you want? Or did you just suddenly miss me 70 years later?" I asked.

"I wanted to talk to you. Before you get scared without a reason, I'll give you one, I saw what you use your computer and phone for."

"Playing videogames. Did you find anything else?" I asked trying to look calmed.

I wasn't calmed though.

"Well, I actually didn't see anything that shocked me."

"Danmörk, tell me what you want already!"

"Can I come in?"

I sat on my bed and she was standing in front of me like she was superior. I cursed myself for being in that position. I felt really submissive, like I was hers again.

"You are running away from me like if I had come here to hurt you" she said.

I didn't say anything, I just looked at her pretending that I wasn't panicking.

"Maybe that's why I am here. Also, you have read a lot of stories about us being together. Why are you scared all of the sudden?"

I liked reading about people who imagined us as people, in anime, comics or fanart. 

"Weren't you with Norway? Why don't you go with him and leave me alone?"

"Don't you know? We actually have an open relationship, so I can do whatever I want. Now, tell me, what do you want? Someone who takes care of you, who loves you? Or even more: someone that controls you and makes you feel things you didn't know that existed. I see it in your eyes, you want it all."

"I don't understand you, what do you want? I asked, almost begged, looking at the floor.

"Ísland" she only called me in Icelandic when something really important was happening. "I can give it to you."

I didn't want to look at her, I knew I wouldn't have been able to think.

"I think you are scared because you know I do want to hurt you. I also think that you want it."

"Denmark…"

"I thought you were more… I'm not sure how to say it… Oh yes, vanilla."

That was it, she knew. She knew what I liked and that scared me.

"Ice, technology is so useless, isn't it?" I could feel the sarcasm in her voice. She was always using it.

She lifted my head by my chin, forcing me to look at her. I got up, we were too close for me to feel okay. She came closer to me, and I didn't stop her. Finally, our lips joined each other, proving our feelings that had been repressed for centuries. I didn't want that kiss to end, but it did.

"I know you're cold as your name tells, but I need to know if you like me back" she sounded worried. 

She was so cute, behind that confidence, there she was still shy.

"Of course I do, I want you."

"What exactly do you want?

"Ég vil ástina þína, hamingju þína, og ótta... sársaukann þinn. Mig langar allt."

"Then I'll give it all to you, but you'll have to speak to me in English and tell me everything. You know I don't understand your language"

"It's hard for me, to talk about my feelings."

She kissed me again. For a moment, I forgot about all my fears. Her lips were really soft and I could tell she knew what she was doing. When we separated, I knew it was my turn to talk.

"You keep saying those things to me. I feel like you understand what I want, but do you really?"

"I knew what I was doing when I came here."

She pushed me to the bed and I could see in her eyes everything she wanted to do. I had never seen that look, she was almost scary. I felt hers again, but much more that just her territory. This wasn't a necklace with a flag, it was about feelings. My desire to be hers, to let her do everything she wanted with me.

That night, Reykjavík's doors were closed and Denmark and I shared a land border. I had proof of that for several weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Danmörk (Icelandic) = Denmark  
> Ísland (Icelandic) = Iceland  
> Ég vil ástina þína, hamingju þína, og ótta... sársaukann þinn. Mig langar allt (Icelandic) = I want your love, your happiness, your fears… your pain. I want everything.


	11. 1978: Faroe and Iceland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iceland got its independence from Denmark in 1944. The Faroe Islands are still within the Kingdom of Denmark. They were both colonized in the IX century. The Danish flag is called Dannebrog. In the Faroe Islands they speak Danish, but they don't like it too much. Icelanders have to learn Danish at school and they hate it.

Faroe Islands' POV

The door opened and Iceland and I separated, trying to cover ourselves. I was panicking, I knew we were in danger.

"I guess this is not what it looks like."

I looked down when I heard that Danish accent. I knew my relationship with Iceland was forbidden but we had been seeing each other for centuries. We hadn't stopped whatever was going on between us when Iceland got independent. We never cared about autonomous territories and independent countries not being able to be together.

"Iceland, you are independent and you know that you can't be with Faroe. Just look at her necklace she always wears, it's my flag" Denmark said.

We both knew she was right but didn't dare to say anything. She was supposed to be with some neighbour, not at home.

"Look, I understand. I think you should be together, but the others won't think so."

"We grew up together. We were colonized at the same time, we have always been at the same level" said Iceland.

"I have been with people that were a lot younger than me. Guess what? That's how countries work. Age doesn't matter, it never has."

I thought she had to understand us, we needed her to keep our secret.

"I'm sure our relationship is the closest thing there is to being siblings" Iceland was trying to fix the situation, but they were bad at it.

"I'm not sure that's how family works, so don't use that to justify this"

I got up, the Dannebrog was the only thing I was wearing. They both looked at me and I felt quite powerful. They had stopped talking because of little insignificant Faroe Islands. I was done with them speaking like I wasn't there. I was less than them, but I still had the right to speak up.

"Danmark, don't tell anyone. You'd destroy us" I said.

"I won't tell anyone if Greenland already knows. I don't want to lie to your boyfriend."

"He knows."

"Good. I see I'm not the only one who likes open relationships, who likes what is common, right?" she was grinning when she said that. "I can't even tell Norway, right?"

"Ikke."

"Stop talking in that mess you call a language" complained Iceland.

I knew there was some resentment between them, although they still liked the other. I just didn't know how much. Iceland hated Danish a lot. They didn't look like themselves when criticising the language.

"I'm calling Finland" said Denmark, grabbing her phone.

I has never been so scared of a red phone. Well, the case was the red one but I liked to think that the entire device was like her flag. I wanted to slap myself for thinking those stupid things.

"No, please" Iceland begged.

"Then shut up. I don't care about your opinion on my language. Now, I'm going to exit this room, and maybe even the house. Then, you will keep fucking and I'll be happily away from it. Understood?"

"Yes" we both answered.

She went away and I got dressed. Iceland wasn't moving, they were lost in their thoughts. I didn't want them to leave so I didn't say anything. I didn't know whether to trust Denmark with our secret or be scared of what she could have said.

"Are you having doubts?" I asked.

My voice was shaking and I knew I looked weak. I didn't care much, I cared about what Iceland was thinking.

"Of course not, I'm just thinking about her being so accepting."

"Because she has hooked up with everyone in Europe?"

Iceland laughed. Most of the countries in our continent used to sleep with a lot of people. That laugh made me think Iceland was one of them too.

"That's why she understands. Because although she is really narcissistic, I'm hers and you were too, she is going to fight for us" I said.

I moved closer to them, knowing it was a hard situation. We had been decades together and no one had ever found out. Greenland knew from the first moment though, he had always been okay with it. He had been with Iceland too, but who wouldn't have wanted to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Danmark (Danish) = Denmark  
> Ikke (Danish) = Don't


	12. 2020: Coronabonds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 28th of March 2020 the European Union made a reunion about the coronabonds. Italy, Spain, France and Portugal asked for them because they had a lot of cases of COVID-19. They asked about something that would make the crisis more equal to everyone, so they didn't suffer more than the rest and the richest countries could help the poorest ones. The Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Finland didn't like the idea. This is basically what the PMs and Presidents said (except the begining, that is just how how video chats work), so I don't think you need more explanations.  
> Poland, Czechia, Germany and Italy are in the same time zone. That France surrenders a lot and that you can't leave Germany alone for five minutes are common memes. Curros are a Spanish meal, apparently. Although they are also popular in Portugal, France and other countries. I noticed that in a lot of sports, Germans wear a lot of yellow in their clothes. There's a part of Spain named Catalonia, a lot of people there want to be Independent. The color of their fight is yellow, they wear yellow cloths and accessories.
> 
> Months later, France and Germany proposed 500.000 million Euro to basically do the same.

Spain's POV

We were all in a video calling to talk about the coronabonds. My colleagues could see me and my flag behind me. We all had put our flags visible in our rooms. A lot of them had books behind them, trying to look smart

"Hello everyone" I said.

No one answered me and I thought they were being rude. Portugal was wearing her pajamas. I had gotten dressed for the first time in days, so I felt a bit bad when I saw Romania dressing really well and even wearing makeup.

"I can't hear anything" said France.

"Spain and Germany, your microphones are off" said the European Union.

He looked a bit stressed because that system for us to communicate was really bad. I tried to switch the microphone on, but I didn't know how to do it. I heard Germany saying strange things in her language and I thought that if she had been able to figure out how to use that website, I could too. I clicked on something, not sure if it was going to do anything.

"¡Hola!" I said.

"We can hear you, Spain" said Ireland.

"I don't understand how this works" Finland expressed.

"Is everyone here?" asked the EU.

Portugal grabbed her phone, writing something. I got a message when she dropped the device "you look very handsome today ;)". I smiled, and answered "gracias". Belgium's connection was failing, so we could only hear some words she was saying.

"I'll be right back" said Ireland leaving us.

"This is a mess" said Greece.

We all agreed with him. Finally, the Netherlands joined us, he was having breakfast. When I say that, I mean he was literally eating cereal and we could all see him. Poland was yawning, it was 10 AM and we were all sleepy. Estonia stretched his arms and Denmark laugh at the situation. Czechia also yawned and that made Germany do it too.

"Is it really early there?" asked Italy sarcasticly.

"I went to sleep quite late" answered Germany.

"Doing what? Should we be scared?" Czech republic said.

It felt like a joke, but it had other intentions. No one laughed. Germany drank a bit of coffee, looking calmed. Her eyes revealed she was only pretending to be calmed.

"You shouldn't be worried, you can just wait for France to surrender" said Slovenia.

"Okay, is everyone here already?" the EU stopped the arguing.

"Yes" we all said.

I actually had no idea, maybe someone was missing and we had said yes. Maybe they wouldn't be in the meeting because we only care about ourselves. I stopped thinking about it, because it was pointless.

"Great, we are here today to talk about the coronabonds. A resource that would make mutual the debt of this crisis. Countries for it?"

"Spain, Portugal, France and I" said Italy. "We are already affected by the coronavirus and we know we will need help."

"I do not agree, Germany, Finland and Austria don't either" explained the Netherlands.

"Then, I don't think it's possible" said the EU.

I couldn't believe my ears. They didn't want to help us and I couldn't understand why.

"Can't you see we should be united on this? That's what this union is for!" I complained.

"I would never allow something like this" said Germany. "So stop giving your people false hope."

"Can't you understand the emergency of this situation?"

She looked at the camera completely shocked, almost hurt.

"Spain, how can you say I don't understand?"

"He's right Allemagne, we all have to help the others" said France with a sweet tone.

We stoped to resting a bit. I knew the situation wasn't going as I thought it would. I ate some churros, until I had to go to the meeting again. Everyone was back, except the German nation, she had deactivated the camera. We could only see her profile picture: a selfie in Brandenburg Gate. She was wearing a yellow t-shirt. I thought it looked like of Catalonia's.

We argued for a long time, we were desperate because it didn't look good for us. I decided to talk again.

"I thought about the five European institutions creating a report about the possible formulas to finance an answer to the coronavirus' crisis."

No one said anything, thinking about what I had said.

"Nein."

"Germany, don't you trust this report?"

"It will propose things I can't do. I can't be very affected by this crisis. I need to think about my people."

"Maybe that's not the point" said the Netherlands. "Maybe we should investigate Spain, because I don't understand how he doesn't have money now."

"What?" I said, too confused to think.

"That's not what I meant…" said Germany.

"Either way, it's your virus and it will stay South. Southern countries can take care of it."

"What you are doing is disgusting" Portugal defended me.

No one had talked to her about that, and she wasn't too affected by the virus. My neighbour still defended my cause.

The meeting was a mess and it proved Europe wasn't united at all. The North didn't want to help us and the rest just watched in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¡Hola! (Spanish) = Hello!  
> Gracias (Spanish) = Thank you  
> Allemagne (French) = Germany  
> Nein (German) = No


	13. 2014: Norway ruins Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Danes use their flag to decorate in Christmas and birthdays. This became a thing when Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, when the Dannebrog was banned. It was the Danish way of saying "I do what I want".  
> The first Norseman that went to Iceland on purpose was the Norwegian Flóki Vilgerðarsonin, in the 9th century. Roskilde and Odense are cities in Denmark, representing the living room and bathroom, respectively.

Norway's POV

It was Christmas and all the Nordics were celebrating at Roskilde. Iceland had gone to the bathroom to get changed, because all the rest had done it at home. Meanwhile I was looking at the Danish flags around the house, it all felt too Danish. Iceland was taking a long time, so I decided to go and ask if everything was alright. I was about to knock on the door of Odense when I heard something.

I realized what I was hearing was Iceland's moans. I was sure they were from pain. I knew Iceland, and because of that, I couldn't believe that was a sexual situation. I knocked and immediately got in.

"Noregur!" screamed Iceland.

Iceland was touching their back, but stopped when I entered the room. It was full of wounds, I was able to recognize them and know they were made by a whip. They put on a shirt, looking at me with fear.

"Ice… if someone has hurt you, you can tell me. You don't have to be embarrassed by it."

"You wouldn't understand."

I felt hurt about that sentence, I loved Iceland since the moment I first found him. I knew we would be like close family.

"Who did that to you?"

"Forget about it."

"No."

Iceland walked past me and went with the others. I followed them, wanting to keep talking about it.

"Who the hell did that to you!?"

"Did what?" asked Faroe.

"I know you won't understand but it was love" Iceland told me.

We were in the middle of the room and everyone was looking at us. I remembered Denmark's words "I'm marking you because I love you. I want everyone to see that you are with me". She had said that to me after giving me several hickeys.

I looked at Iceland in the eye, thinking it wasn't the same. No one would whip someone they love, right?

"Well, if it was love, you wouldn't mind telling me who is that country you are dating" I said sounding calmer than I actually was.

"Ég… forget about it."

They looked at the others, who were staring at us without saying a word. It had become really awkward and I knew it was my fault. Although I didn't care, I was just taking care of Iceland.

"Who was the last one you dated?" I asked. "Did you get back together?"

"Let's talk about something else" said Sami.

We all knew Iceland's last relationship was with Faroe. They had broken up when Iceland had gotten independent. A country and an autonomous territory couldn't be together and that hurt them both.

"Iceland, if you are in an abusive relationship, you can tell us. We will all support you" I said, only wanting to help.

"Norway, if Iceland is saying that's not what is going on, why not listening to their version?" asked Finland.

I thought he might be right, so I looked at Iceland, waiting for an answer.

"Ég… Það er… mér líkar…" they weren't making any sense.

"Iceland and I have been together for some weeks" said Denmark. "We wanted to tell you but we knew it would be hard for us to explain."

I turned to her, only wanting to beat her up. Sweden got up and stopped me, knowing I was really going to hurt her.

"What the fuck did you do to Iceland!?"

"Nothing I didn't want or beg for."

I looked at Iceland, seing a serious look on their face. I thought that wasn't possible, I couldn't believe it.

"We knew we'd get a lot of Norwegian paranoias" said Denmark. "Tell me Norge, have you ever heard of something called BDSM?

"No…"

I was really confused. My girlfriend was dating the nation I was also in love with, and they had something that were letters. I thought that day couldn't get more strange. Both Denmark and I accepted that the other was seeing other people or maybe even have another relationship, but that was too weird.

"What is that?" I asked.

"It's a kink or even a lifestyle" said Greenland. "What I can see is that Iceland is a masochist, which means they enjoy pain, and got punished by their mistress, Denmark. I can explain more if you want."

"Since when do you know so much about this stuff?" asked Finland.

"Well…"

"That means that you liked it?" I asked Iceland.

"Norway please, can we not talk about it? It's awkward! We were celebrating Christmas!"

"Then you should have told me earlier, then I would have known."

"He is actually right" said Denmark.

"Thanks, elskede."

"Can we eat now?" asked Iceland.

It was the strangest Christmas I have ever celebrated. We hadn't celebrated one like that ever again. Denmark, Sweden and Finland go with the rest of the EU, and Iceland asked Germany if they could do the same, she said yes. Sometimes we celebrate with everyone else in Europe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Noregur (Icelandic) = Norway  
> Ég (Icelandic) = I  
> Það er (Icelandic) = That is  
> Mér líkar (Icelandic) = I like  
> Elskede (Norwegian) = Pet name meaning beloved one


	14. 2003: France and Germany

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Germany was created when a lot of nations unified in 1871. France is considered the country of love.
> 
> In the Treaty of Versailles, after WW1, Germany had to pay a lot of money for war reparations. This broke the German economy, and the debt wasn't completely payed until 2010. The treaty had a lot of other things that humiliated the Germans, this ended up in a cruel dictatorship years later. Then it was all based on race, the "pure Aryan" one being superior to all the rest.
> 
> In 1940, Nazi Germany invaded France. After the war, Germany was split in two, and it unified again in 1990.

France's POV

The meeting between the EU had ended and I went outside to feel the fresh air against my skin. I had always thought the European meetings were boring. I lied down on the grass, enjoying the sun. I didn't want to go home, even if it was really close to where I was. Suddenly, I stopped feeling the sunlight in my face because someone was in front of me. It was easy to recognize her, black, red and yellow were were dressing her, but yellow was always bigger than the other colors. She always dressed formal, usually wearing a purse. I had no idea what she kept there.

"Are you sleepy and want to stay in my land?" she asked.

I bit my lip, looking at her. She had a little smile, it really suited her. She was beautiful, the living perfect beauty stereotype. I didn't want to tell her that I was staying there because I wanted her closer to me.

"I was surprised because today the weather is really good, so I decided to stay in German land."

"You also have bad weather."

Germany sat down next to me. I needed to talk to her, she wouldn't start a casual conversation.

"The meeting was a mess" I said.

"They always are, we have never liked anyone else that wasn't ourselves or our people. That's how countries work."

"Sometimes I feel like you are too young to understand how things work."

"Excuse me, madam grandmother of nations" she laughed while saying that.

I sat up, so I could see her laughing better. She was very cute.

"You are thirteen."

"That's not true! I unified thirteen years ago, but I was actually created in 1871!"

She was smiling, something she never did when there were a lot of people. She had the sweetest look. I couldn't understand how she could be so okay with her origins. When she first unified, a lot of nations that became a part of her disappeared. Years later, the same thing happened with her Eastern part, melting with her. She had never been with these nations, she only knee what others had told her.

"I had done a lot of things before you were brought to this world" I told her.

"Years don't make you wiser, neither do experiences nor mistakes. It's impossible to be so smart that you won't make errors again" she said that sounding serious.

"I have always liked your inspirational quotes."

"They are normal sentences!"

"'They are normal sentences' Allemagne, 2003."

"Ha, ha" that was the worst fake laugh I had ever heard.

"You should joke more, voisine."

"Is that an insult?"

"Yes."

I just wanted to mess with her, knowing her French was terrible.

"France…" she sounded like she was joking, pretending to beg. "What have I done to you now?"

That last word felt sour. I knew it had much feeling.

"You don't need to say that, you know I don't hold a grudge for anything" I said.

"I always think before talking, every word has a powerful meaning."

"I don't think, I just talk and I'll apologise later if I screw up."

"You make everything seem easy."

"Oh Germany, everything is easy."

She got up, without looking at me. I needed to keep talking, before she could close herself in war flashbacks.

"I think you wouldn't be able to be close to someone you love, and of course, talk to them" I wasn't sure about what I was doing.

"You are wrong."

"Am I? I'm glad to hear that, you know I love love."

I had the feeling that my heart was about to explode or break. I had found out she liked someone. A part of my mind was saying it could be me, but another one thought it was impossible.

"Can I know who it is?" I had to ask her.

I knew it would hurt me, but I prefered the pain of rejection than not knowing.

"Why should I tell you?" she said looking at me with a cold expression.

I froze. She didn't trust me. Then I understood, she didn't trust anyone, she had been broken a long time ago and she was still scared of everything.

"Well…" I tried to say something, but my eloquence had left me.

"You don't need to pretend to be nice to me."

"I'm not pretending, I just wanted to talk."

I knew I had failed, she had closed herself again. I saw her grabbing her purse, searching for something.

"Here" she said giving me something.

I didn't stop looking at her, so I didn't know what she had given to me until I had it in my hands. Euros, a lot of them. For a moment I didn't see the money, I could only see blood, the blood of our people. War.

"I didn't come for this" I said, my voice was shaking.

"You really don't need to lie nor treat me well, France, I promise I won't occupy you again."

She had said it like it was a stupid joke, but we both knew she meant it.

"Don't you realize I care about you? Or that you need to open up a bit more? I'm not asking you to talk to everyone, only that you smile. You should be happier, you deserve it" I had started talking and I couldn't stop.

I got up, leaving the money on the floor. She went a step back. She looked scared and I was sure she wanted me to stop talking. Her blue eyes looked wet, and that confirmed what I was thinking, not a lot of people had told her nice things.

"You have the prettiest look I have ever seen, you deserve to be happy."

"Why?" her voice was about to break.

"Because seing you happy is the best thing ever. You have the purest smile in all Europe."

"No…" she whispered.

She fell on her knees, sobbing uncontrollably. For a moment I was surprised by her reaction. I had said something nice to her, or that's what I thought before repeating my words in my head. I covered my mouth with my hand, not knowing how to fix the situation. It was stupid how a simple word could mean different things depending on the person and their experiences. I was scared to step closer to her, I didn't want to harm her even more.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to say that…"

"I just wanted you to understand me, only you…"

"Why me?"

She got up again, looking at me with a straight face. The tears were still falling down her face, she must had had cried a lot to get that used to it.

"Because I trust you. After all, there isn't a lot of people who can break my walls and let me be myself, and you do it so well" she looked so precious, I felt I needed to protect her, but you can't protect someone from their past.

"I don't understand…"

She placed a finger on my lips, making me shut up. I guess then she realized how close we were and wanted to get away from me.

"Je te veux dire quelque chose… Je veux que tu fasse partie dans ma vie."

"What does that mean?"

"What do you think it means?"

I rubbed her cheek, and decided it was now or never. I thought she would try to stop it when our lips met, but she didn't. I couldn't believe I was actually feeling her tongue asking for entrance, but I didn't hesitate to allow it. I noticed the irony of giving Germany a French kiss.

"Finally!" I heard the UK screaming.

The German nation and I separated, looking at him. He was talking to Austria, not too far from where we were. They highed five before going away.

"That was surreal" she said while laughing.

"I have been in love with you for a long time. Please, let me be with you, you deserve love. You deserve it more than anyone else."

She looked down with a sigh, then she looked at me again, with happiness in her eyes.

"Ich liebe dich."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Allemagne (French) = Germany  
> Voisine (French) = Neighbour  
> Je te veux dire quelque chose… Je veux que tu fasse partie dans ma vie (French) = I want to tell you something… I want you to be a part of my life  
> Ich liebe dich (German) = I love you


	15. 2015: Iceland and the Danish language

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iceland is one of the 21 countries without an army. Iceland got its independence from Denmark in 1944 but Icelandic kids still have to learn Danish at school. They hate it and because of that, they aren't really good at it. Not a lot of people around the world like how Danish sounds. Even now, Iceland still depens in Denmark in some small things. Because Iceland has a small population so a lot of them travel to the Danish nation to study or do business. A lot of Danes study German at school.

Iceland's POV

I was at Denmark's place, playing videogames with her because we were bored. I lost again, I was really bad at that game.

"This sucks."

"You suck at this, there's a difference."

"Shut up!" I said pretending to be angry.

"Oh no Iceland! Don't be mad, I don't want a war between us!."

Denmark was laughing, and I was too. I couldn't fight her even if I wanted to. Either way, I have never liked conflicts between nations.

"I'm tired" I said.

"You haven't done anything."

"But sometimes not doing anything is worse than doing a lot of things. At least I feel worse."

"Åh Island, aren't we all tired? I get your point, but even our existence is work. We can't even rest when we sleep."

"You are right, sometimes I'd like to know what being human feels like."

I thought of myself as a normal human. I'd have a name, a life, and I'd age. I would die eventually, so life would be more precious. Our lives can be really long, and there's a point when everything is stupid. We have too many memories.

"By the way, have you studied Danish today?" she asked me.

"Well…"

"Republic of Iceland!"

"What? I didn't feel like doing it…"

"I don't care, you have to."

I knew she was right, I made my people learn it but they didn't want to. My Danish was really bad because of that.

"Maybe if you had a nicer language…"

"It's my language whether you like it or not. Would you like to learn another one? Really?

"Perhaps Spanish? French? I don't know, something useful would be nice."

"Don't you dare. You were mine once, and it hasn't completely changed, has it?"

I stared at her in silence, knowing it was true. I hadn't cut all of our relationship. I couldn't, I loved her too much.

"Now I'm yours because I want to, there's a huge difference there. Either way, I live in my own house, and I have my own friends" I said proudly.

"I don't understand some of your friendships though."

"Denmark, you don't have to understand them."

"I know, I know."

"I'm myself's now, so stop talking to me about your language."

She didn't answer. I knew she wanted to say something but wasn't sure if it was a good idea.

"If you hate it so much, why do you ask me to speak it when I'm fucking you?"

"Eh… well…"

"I'm not kink shaming you, it's just something strange, isn't it?'

"Even if I like a language, being forced to learn it makes it horrible. You should understand me, you have it with German."

"Well, it's not the same…"

It wasn't because I was the one who did her German homework. I spoke it better than her.

"Come on, I got independence 71 years ago. There's no need for me to speak Danish…" I begged.

"You haven't really left."

"I chose to be with you."

"For now."

She had been scared of me leaving her since the 40s, when I asked for real independence. I never understood why. She wasn't only afraid of me being a country, she thought I'd hate her.

"Why are you so afraid of me leaving?" I needed to know.

"I don't want to talk about it…"

She looked really scared, like she was remembering something. I wanted to know about it, but I didn't think she would ever tell me.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Åh Island (Danish) = Oh Iceland


	16. 1945: Germany talks to Iceland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iceland got its independence from Denmark in 1944. Selfoss is a town in Iceland, it represents their living room. Vík is another town, it represents the guest room. Hamburg is a German city and federal state, it represents her living room. Germany started existing when a lot of nations unified, in the XIX century.
> 
> WW2 in Europe ended in 1945. During the war, Nazi Germany invaded Denmark. They still didn't lose all power because they "behaved" and when they didn't, they were kind of forgiven because they were considered Aryan, and the best kind of it: Nordic. Iceland was "neutral" although happily occupied by the UK and after that, the USA. Millions of people were killed in the Holocaust. When the end of the war was near, Germany's leader, Adolf Hitler, killed himself. After the war and until 1949, the Allies occupied Germany. Then, only the Soviet Union stayed, that territory was called East Germany and it was a different country than its West. In 1973, some letters were removed from the Icelandic alphabet, Z was one of them.
> 
> Here there will some mentioned symbols, you can google their names or what they are, I'm not going to explain them.

Iceland's POV

I was starting at the window, watching the snow fall. I was close to the chimney, and I couldn't feel happier. I was finally independent and could do whatever I wanted. There was a lot of wind, but that was normal in my place. Suddenly I saw someone walking towards my house and I thought it was Norway or Denmark, wanting to tell me something. When the nation was closer, I didn't recognize her. I got a bit scared because after the war, a lot of things were strange, and I didn't want to get hurt. I stared at the fireplace, wondering who could it be. The sound of the doorbell scared me, but I needed to know who it was. I only recognized her when I opened the door.

"Hello Iceland, I wanted to talk to you" said Germany.

"Come in" I said surprised.

I saw the regret in her eyes, she also looked exhausted. Her eyes told me she didn't have any tears left. I had gotten used to her "I want the entire world" look and now it was gone. I had heard of how hard it was being for her to forget all she had known and learn how to live again, but seing the sadness in her eyes was almost heartbreaking. I knew I shouldn't feel sorry for her, she had done terrible things. But deep down, I knew something had changed since the last time I had seen her.

Her hair was down, and messy. She had been wearing amazing hairstyles since she became a dictatorship. We all had gotten used to her braids and beautiful hair. She made us feel that she could even control how she look. That was because everyone that made her look less "perfect" faced a horrible fate.

I showed her the way to Selfoss, and made her sit on the sofa. She took her gloves, hat and jacket off. I knew it was really cold in my territory, but I didn't feel the cold like the others. I didn't think that day was really cold, she was just trying to hide.

"I finally understand your name" she said.

"It's always cold here" I said smiling. "Do you want something to drink?"

"No, thanks. This won't take long. The Allies let me do this, but I don't want them to think I'm trying to escape from them."

She was looking at the floor, while moving her leg nervously. It was easy to see she wasn't okay.

"What made you visit me? I don't think you came to see the geysers" I asked.

"I've been days just apologizing to everyone I hurt. When I finished, I thought I should talk to you too. I had a feeling that told me I had to come. I heard a piece of my heart speaking Icelandic and I didn't understand why or what it was saying."

Then I understood, a bit. I didn't know why she wanted to apologize to me. Everyone else else made sense: Poland, Denmark, France, her enemies… but why me?

"I don't remember you hurting me" I said.

"Fortunately, I didn't, that's why I wasn't going to come. But everytime you came to talk to Denmark, I wasn't really nice to you."

"Don't worry about it, it's okay."

"I never used your name."

"I'm actually a piece of ice, and I've been called worse. If you think insulting me is going to make me cry, you don't know me at all."

She sighed, looking at the window. Some seconds after that, she finally looked at me.

"I read every letter you sent to Denmark."

"I thought you just thew them away."

"Ich… no. I knew you quite a lot thanks to that, I even liked you."

"I didn't think you could like someone…" I realized what I had just said and I panicked. "I mean, don't get me wrong…"

"I understand. I thought you were like me, I wouldn't have liked you if you hadn't been a Nordic. Even I was able to love, in my own twisted way…"

"I… don't know what to say…"

"You don't have to say anything. I just want you to know that I have changed, I really have. I know I still have to adapt to this new situation, but I going to make it."

"Þýskaland."

She looked surprised when she heard her name.

"I already know, I didn't think you still believed in all that. I didn't even have to look at your clothes, your face explains it."

She almost started crying when she heard that. I figured not a lot of people were as forgiving as me, but I had been neutral in the war. I hadn't been hurt.

"Danke."

"Ekkert að þakka."

"How did you call me earlier?"

"Þýskaland."

"Tyskland…" she whispered.

She looked like she was remembering something, and I knew what it was. Denmark told me everything that happened during her occupation in her letters.

"That's your name in Danish" I said.

She looked like she had been frozen. I didn't say anything, I didn't want to disturb her. Her eyes were half closed, she looked like she was about to fall asleep. She did look very tired.

"Have you slept tonight?" I asked puting my hand in her arm.

That seemed to wake her up.

"An hour and a half."

"Go to Vík, sleep a bit and when you wake up, we'll continue our conversation."

"No, I can't waste more time."

"Sleeping is not a waste of time."

I still had my hand in her arm, so I grabbed it and took her to the guest room. She couldn't even fight back, she was too weak. I locked her inside the room and returned to where the chimney was.

Some hours later I went to wake her up. When I opened the door, I saw she was almost completely covered by the duvet. I sighed, it wasn't that cold. She opened her eyes, somehow, I could sense she hadn't slept at all.

"Better?" I asked turning the light on.

"Yes, thank you" Germany answered while getting out of bed.

She was only wearing her underwear, so I turned around.

"I thought you were used to see people naked. In pools and stuff. The sauna one was Finland but you Nordics always do everything together."

"Germany…"

She touched my shoulder, so I turned around to look at her. She was dressed again and I could see again that she hadn't slept at all. I had never been in a war, but I had seen how devastating it could be. I thought she would be fine soon, that she'd get over the guilt some months later. I hadn't felt really bad about anything I did, so I couldn't understand. I was so naive. She hadn't just told another country they were dumb, she had been so evil.

"What were we talking about?" Germany asked me.

"I was saying that I forgive everything you did to me, because you didn't really do anything. Either way, I felt pretty proud to be insulted by you, everyone else was jealous."

"Thank you Iceland, I think I should go now."

It was obvious that she didn't want to go back home again, that's why she had come. It was dark, but inviting her to sleep over would have been stupid. I knew she wasn't going to sleep any time soon.

"What are you going to do now?" I asked, not wanting her to leave.

"I guess I'll go home and clean everything."

She looked at the floor, avoiding my eyes. I didn't want her to be alone. Sadness, loneliness plus regret make horrible things happen.

"Do you want my help?" I stopped talking when she looked at me, not being able to believe what I was saying. "I think it can be hard for you, so I don't think you should do it by yourself. Someone should help you. Someone who doesn't look at you with fear nor someone who you refuse to look directly after all you've done to them. It's hard to explain, but of course I thought, and now I still think, all you did was horrible, but I know you want to change. We're countries, we are changing all the time. I want to help you. You just have to let me."

She stared at me in silence, looking so weak that I thought if I touched her she would literally break. Finally she spoke.

"Danke."

Before leaving, I took a pen and paper, just in case. We went to her house. After crossing the river that separated me from everyone else, we walked close to Denmark's house. Germany wouldn't stop looking at the sky. She looked much calmer then, like if the stars had always been there for her. We were finally in front of her door. The German nation hesitated before opening the door.

"I haven't come here since it all ended."

I knew that was a euphemism, but I wasn't sure what it meant. Maybe when she knew the war was about to end, when her leader killed himself, when she started losing everything she had built or when she surrended. A lot of things had happened. I grabbed her hand before opening the door. I knew she was surprised, I wasn't someone really social, and my skin has always been cold. She needed to get that situation over with, and that's what I wanted to do too. We were inside but I couldn't see anything. For a moment, I thought it was disappointing, but then I switched on the light. And… it was worse than I had thought.

"I can't…"

She looked frozen, looking forward. I turned to see what was so scary to her. Then I understood what Denmark had written to me so many times "it doesn't matter how many times I've seen it, the swastika always manages to scare me. It just freezes me, I feel like it's looking at me. It's terrifying. And the worst part is that it's in my own arm". My hand was still holding Germany's, and I could feel her shaking. I decided to take her outside, and make her sit on the ground. I gave her the pen and paper, while she looked at me silently asking for help.

"I need you to do something: draw and write every symbol you want to eliminate" I said, trying to calm her down.

She didn't say anything, but she looked thankful. I didn't understand how I could read her like we were best friends.

"I don't know a lot about this, but I want to help you get rid of the _naxi_ stuff."

For a moment, I thought she'd be angry for using that word, but she started laughing instead.

"The Z is pronounced "ts". Who taught you how to read that?" she was sill laughing, and I mentally decided that I'd never say that word correctly.

"I'm not sure, I don't use that letter a lot anymore."

She looked pretty when she smiled. When her smile was genuine and nice, not genocidal. I entered the building again, tearing off the flag that was at the entrance. I just threw it on the ground because I didn't have any better ideas. I went to Hamburg, almost getting scared. The entire house looked like a museum, there were symbols and flags everywhere. I threw everything I recognized to the floor.

I got out of the house after I was done with the entire building. Germany was on the floor with her eyes closed. If she wasn't moving her foot, she would have fallen asleep.

"Þýskaland, are you awake?" I said softly.

"Was? Ja."

She sat up, she looked like she could faint at any moment. The sun was ready to rise, she needed to rest. I saw the paper next to her, so I grabbed it. There were some symbols with a asterisk.

"The ones with an asterisk were used before the Regime began. For example, Prussia used the Iron cross before me."

"Does that mean that you want to keep it or not?"

"I will do that myself, you have done enough Island."

"Of course not! I'm here because I want to help you."

"Thank you very much, Iceland. You can't imagine how happy I am about the USA and the UK not leaving you alone. I wouldn't like to be the reason why you cry. You're an angel."

I almost blushed, but I tried to convince myself that anyone else would have done the same thing. I was looking at the paper, surprised at the strange drawings.

"Why did you use a pirate skull?" I asked confusedly.

She laughed again at my inexperience.

"You mean the Totenkopf? I'm not even sure myself. It was cool and scary. I know I'm not the only one though. But I didn't chose it because of pirates, trust me."

I couldn't take it seriously, it looked like a pirate flag to me. I looked at some more, until I saw something that devastated me.

"Runes!? I used them to write a long time ago! They were from the Vikings!"

"I took some old Norse things… The war flag has your cross too…" she said with a guilty tone.

I felt bad for scolding her, that was the Allies job, and she did it too. I thought about the situation for a moment. She still couldn't believe I was being nice to her, and that had to mean something.

"The others you went to apologise to… Were they nice?"

"Some… They shouldn't have been…"

When she looked at the sky instead of me, I understood she didn't want to remember anything.

"I don't want to do anything anymore…"

"Everything will be okay."

"Thinking that is like dreaming that I can fly without a machine's help."

Hours later it was already noon, and we were in her room.

"I think that's all" I said happily.

"Thank you again, for everything."

"Call me if you need me, I'll come. Now, you are going to sleep."

I threw myself on the bed, not knowing what I was doing.

"I don't want to…" she looked terrified.

I felt like maybe a monster was waiting for her to fall asleep so it could torture her. I thought that monster could be the past, or worse: herself.

"I'm going to stay awake, so you can sleep. If you have a nightmare, I'll wake you, okay? You can trust me. You won't suffer while I'm here."

"How can you be so sure?"

"If you trust me, you'll be okay. I can try to sing you to sleep in my language if you want to. Or shut up, so you can enjoy silence."

She laid down next to me, looking a bit more confident.

"Will you be here until I wake up?" her voice almost broke.

"Já. Now sleep, I don't even care if you want to undress, it's your house, after all."

"I have slept like that since I was unified."

"Ha, I have since forever too."

"I think that'd be too much."

We were in her bed…

"Put on an old shirt or something like that and sleep pleaseee."

"I will, but don't leave me."

"I won't."

She did sleep, and without nightmares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ich (German) = I  
> Þýskaland (Icelandic) = Germany  
> Danke (German) = Thank you  
> Ekkert að þakka (Icelandic) = You are welcome  
> Tyskland (Danish) = Germany  
> Was? Ja (German) = What? Yes  
> Island (German) = Iceland


	17. 2020: Denmark and China

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Danish jokes are full with dark humor. Denmark is a country with a lot of bikes. Denmark wanted to stay neutral in WW2 so they didn't have a strong army, thinking that would make them look useless to attack. Nazi Germany occupied Denmark, who surrended in only four hours. Also, before the Germans could do anything, Denmark was able to send 99% of their Jews to Sweden, saving them.
> 
> In January of 2020, a Danish newspaper made an edit of the Chinese flag, using pictures of the coronavirus. China wanted an apology but the newspaper and the Prime Minister said it was just a joke. Chinese people returned the joke doing the same with the Danish flag, but instead of the virus, they used swastikas. Coronavirus arrived in Denmark some time later, but in this chapter, both things will happen more or less at the same time.
> 
> Here you have two links to see what I'm talking about. Open them and look at the pictures so you understand.
> 
> https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thelocal.dk/20200128/china-demands-apology-over-danish-newspapers-cartoon-flag-insult/amp
> 
> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7948913/amp/Chinese-swastika-Danish-flag-PM-refuses-apologise-coronavirus-China-flag.html

Denmark's POV

China was in front of me. I had never seen him so angry (maybe because we have never been really close).

“I know your humor is strange, but this is too much.”

He wouldn't forget about it, and I didn't know what to do. I just wanted to make a joke, not to offend anyone. It wasn't personal, he had a virus, I laughed at that, normal stuff. Right? It wasn't going to get to me either way. At least, that's what I thought.

“It's just freedom of speech, I can't control what my people do” I said.

“People have died and you make a joke?”

“You're overreacting.”

I knew I wouldn't be able to make him go away, but I wouldn't apologise. My PM had said that no one should apologise for the drawing, so I definitely was not going to. It was just a joke right? If I had been in China's place, I would have been okay with it. I was certain about it.

“I will not apologise for anything.”

“I can not forget about you mocking me and my people. This virus is lethal, and you should be praying so it doesn't get to you!”

I was getting bored.

“It's not my fault that your humor sucks" I just wanted him to leave already.

”Oh really? Because you are perfect, aren't you? You have never made mistakes. The perfect Denmark…“ he was using sarcasm, I kind of liked that.

”No one is perfect, and we have proof of that in this situation. Everyone has made something they aren't proud of. But sometimes we also do something really nice. Like my drawing.“

I felt something in my stomach, but I wasn't sure what it was. I felt the fabric of my red and white shirt between my fingers, something was wrong. I coughed, once. And then once again. I realised what had happened. And so did the Chinese nation.

”Now you have it too."

I looked at him, thinking I'd be okay. It was just like the flu, I wouldn't get hurt. I couldn't be wrong. I couldn't…

“Who is laughing now?” he wasn't laughing, he knew it was serious.

I got out of my own house, I needed to get away. I grabbed my bike and went to the sea (well, in our world it was really small, Iceland even calls it river). When I saw the waves, I felt safe. I undressed and threw myself into the water. I swam until I got to the bottom. I was scared, I needed to do something, not staying in my mermaid form under the sea. At least, I was hidden, China wouldn't find me. I wanted him to forget about the flag thing, it wasn't anything important.

Some days passed and I found myself knocking on China's door. He opened it and let me in. I threw several drawings of my flag on his table. Well, that wasn't my real flag.

“你好 丹麦.”

“You got your revenge.”

“Aparently, when you think of me nowadays, you think of the virus. But when I think of you, I think of Nazi Germany's bitch.”

I never was… was I? No, of course not.

“Don't you dare” hearing him was making me feel sick.

I hated how people didn't see my effort in WW2, they only saw how powerless I was. But he had done the same as me, laughing, with black humor, but it was all a joke. A joke that got too far. Or not. My head hurt, I had too many feelings.

“This is freedom of speech, I can't control what my people do” he was using my words against me.

I couldn't do anything, he was right. But about the nazis… that was low. I started to walk away again.

“I'm glad you like my humor” I heard him say.

I felt like crying, but I couldn't. It was humor, I knew it was. But it didn't make me laugh at all.

“You're being too sensitive."

”No, it's okay. I like your humor“ I lied.

”Really? Then why don't you stay? I could make some tea.“

”No thanks, I'm going home. Iceland and Norway are probably waiting for me.“

”Wait.“

I looked at him, not walking anymore. I was scared of what he was about to tell me.

”Don't forget these“ he gave me the flags while saying those words.

China was smiling a lot, I tried to do it too, but I couldn't. I ended up bringing the flags home. I was almost at my place, I knew I couldn't cry, it was just a joke. I saw someone near me but I didn't pay attention to them, I was too busy staring at the floor.

”Hey Denmark, you look sad.“

Oh, not her. I looked at Germany, hiding my "flags" behind me. It was a childish thing to do, but I didn't want her to see them.

”I had an argument with China, nothing too serious.“

”Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?“

”I'm sure, he just…“

I was really nervous, so I started shaking. I couldn't stop myself and I didn't want her to see the drawings. I guess I moved too much because she looked where my hands were and her face changed.

”What is that?“ she whispered.

”It depends, which one are you referring to?“

”Does it matter?“

”Yes, some are just stupid jokes about my country, others are laughing at my mistakes in the past“ my voice almost broke, but I was trying to look strong.

”What happened?“ she looked worried, like she knew what was happening to me. ”Whoever did this is trying to make you feel bad, you shouldn't let them.“

”But he was right…“ I was thinking out loud.

”YOU WHAT!?“

I didn't understand why she had screamed so loud, then I realised.

”He said I deserved to be mocked, after what I did.“

I explained the entire situation, we were sitting in the grass. For some reason, she smiled while sitting there, like she was remembering something nice.

”You made a mistake, if you apologise, I'm sure China will forgive you and stop saying those things."

“It was a joke.”

“But not a funny one.”

“Not you too.”

“It's better late than never, trust me. You'll regret not apologising."

”Don't you think he crossed the line?“

She thought about it for a moment. I needed her to be on my side.

”You are the one who crossed it. I'm sorry Denmark, I can't help you. I know why he said that, it's everyone's favorite topic. And because of that, you must be strong to prove him wrong, because he is wrong.“

He wasn't, I had surrendered in four hours. Only four hours. Pathetic.

”I think I'll just burn these and forget about it“ I decided to just stop worrying.

”That's the best thing you could do.“

"How do you do it?“

”How do I do what?“

”Being okay with everyone reminding you of what you did in the war.“

”Do you want to know my secret way to be okay with everything?“

I nodded. I was expecting something epic, or maybe an "I just get drunk". She looked really serious, so I knew she was going to tell me something private. Germany moved closer to me, and started whispering in my ear.

”You just pretend to be okay, get home, cry, talk to someone who wants to listen and stare at your own arm. Good luck.“

After that, she got up and walked away. I was left alone, sad because of a stupid joke that was actually a revenge for my own joke. I just hoped I hadn't upset her too. Maybe my humor was too dark? No, and neither was China's. I stopped thinking about it. We both laughed at each other, and that made it okay.

”Gud, det var forfærdelig.“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 你好 丹麦 (Chinese) = Hello Denmark  
> Gud, det var forfærdelig (Danish) = God, that was horrible


	18. 1219 and 2019: A Danish legend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Estonia didn't exist in this period of time as the territory we know nowadays, but you'll understand later why this is inaccurate. Denmark (with some German allies) fought Estonian pegan tribes in the Livonian Crussade. The Danes won. There was a Danish victory in the Battle of Lindanise (Tallin), the 15th June of 1219, this chapter is about this battle. Denmark's flag (also named Dannebrog) is the oldest country flag still used.
> 
> There's a legend about what happened in this battle, I'm not going to explain it because you'll find out about it when you read this chapter.
> 
> I already talked about the "Danish surrender" joke before

Denmark's POV

I fell onto the floor, almost passing out. I tried to keep my eyes open but I could only see blood, and it scared me. I needed to do something, I couldn't lose like that. I managed to get on my knees, resting for a moment to get up and keep fighting. I looked up and saw Estonia looking at me. He looked furious, the revenge he had in his eyes looked dangerous.

“You thought you could just come here and make me believe in your religion?”

I was surprised because he sounded calm. His voice didn't sound like I thought it would. He looked terrifying, but he sounded… almost sweet. I closed my eyes, trying to imagine him being happy about the situation, I didn't want to think I was losing, even though I knew I was. I realized I hadn't answered him, I didn't know it was a good idea.

“I don't care about your God, I just want to live in peace.”

“You must care, or you'll suffer the consequences.”

He blinked twice, not expecting me to answer. I coughed once, before getting up once again.

“I thought you were different Denmark, but you are just like the rest of them.”

“I'm myself, and I'm only fighting for what's right.”

“How can you say that?”

I tried hitting him with my axe but I failed. I asked myself once again why did I bring an axe. The answer was obvious: it was cool. I didn't even see him moving, but I did feel metal hurting my arm. I was getting dizzy, it was hard to stand. I touched my arm with my other hand, my armor was falling apart. I had been too hurt, and that meant that my people weren't fine. He was waiting for me to fall, the real battle ended when my body touched the ground.

“You should surrender” he said.

“I don't surrender. It's not a Danish thing.”

Well, let's not talk about that… Anyways, he looked tired of fighting, but I couldn't finish our conflict. I started walking backwards, not caring about not seeing where I was going. I actually couldn't see anything, my eyes hurt too much to keep them open. I looked pathetic, covered in my own blood, my armor was almost gone and my enemy looked just fine.

I fell onto the floor again, I was going to tell him I surrendered, but I wanted to look into his eyes before ending everything. It took me some seconds to open my left eye, it stinged too much. Estonia almost look sad, but I knew he wasn't. I looked at the sky, feeling the sunlight burning my pupils.

“Jeg ved at det er færdig, men jeg vil slet ikke sige det i virkeligheden.”

“Mida?”

I thought about home, what would the other Nordics say? I was about to lose to a pagan. Norway would be disappointed, maybe he wouldn't want to see me anymore. I was supposed to be strong, to win everytime battle and war.

Something started falling from the sky, it was red like the blood that was covering me. I thought it had to be God, sending a message. It fell right next to me. I didn't understand at firstly, it was a flag. It had a white cross on top of a red field. I suddenly opened both of my eyes, without any struggling. I looked at the sky, and then again at the heavenly flag. I took it, feeling strength to fight again. I was able to get up, and restart the battle between the Baltic and me. He couldn't believe his eyes, and let's be honest, I couldn't either. God had sent me a gift to help me!

I managed to win the battle, thanks to the strength God had given me. Estonia was now on the floor, more hurt than me, begging for mercy.

“Please, I'll do anything. I'll become yours if you want, I'll even learn your beautiful language. I know you're much stronger than me, but I think the entire world is powerless when compared to you. Denmark, you're so perfect, please forgive me and my sins.”

I smiled, tasting the sweet taste of victory.

“I wonder how much of that is true” said Norway.

“Nothing” laughed Sweden.

“Shut up! That's the legend of the Dannebrog, I don't care if you like it or not” I said.

They had interrupted my great story, I still had to explain how much Estonia said I was awesome.

“Estonia wouldn't say that” said Finland.

“It's a legend, it's not supposed to be accurate” I answered.

“Whatever.”

“And today, 15th June of 2019, I celebrate my flag being the oldest of them all!”

“It does sound cool” said Iceland looking at the many flags I had all around the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jeg ved at det er færdig, men jeg vil slet ikke sige det i virkeligheden (Danish) = I know this is over, but I don't want to admit it.
> 
> Mida? (Estonian) = What?
> 
> I usually get a the translations from someone who speaks the language, but I haven't found Estonians. I apologise if the translation is wrong, or if the word was too simple.


	19. 1947: Prussia is dissolved

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: A character's death and mentions of suicide.
> 
> I wrote the translations next to the dialogue, you’ll see why later.
> 
> Prussia was a country who unified with other small nations to form Germany in 1871. It became a German region. Prussia and France never had a good relationship and kept fighting.
> 
> WW2 ended in 1945. Nazi Germany had become one of the deadliest regimes in history. The most important thing was race, and you were considered perfect if your entire bloodline was German and you had blond hair and blue eyes. In 1947 the Allies dissolved Prussia. 
> 
> Germany was split in four parts: France, UK, USA and USSR. Each Ally had a territory. France didn't do as much in the war, so they had lest territory. The USSR wouldn't let its part go when the rest did, so that split Germany in two countries: East and West.
> 
> Iceland was occupied by the USA in WW2, but was neutral in the war.

Germany's POV

The UK was the one who told me what was about to happen. His allies were there with him, trying to explain the situation without me going insane. They were scared of my possible reaction.

“This isn't fair! He didn't do anything!” I was screaming on the top of my lungs.

“Someone has to pay for this” his voice was smooth, he was trying to calm me, but his British accent always managed to annoy me.

“You don't understand, he doesn't deserve this” sobs broke that sentence a couple of times.

“I'm sorry. You need to understand why this is happening.”

I started breathing through my mouth, but I still felt like I was choking. My legs were shaking but I couldn't fall, I needed to be strong.

“You don't want me to desire the "Prussian glory", you're scared nationalism getting to me again” I said.

“Yeah, that's it.”

He was right, that couldn't happen again, but I hated to think it had been Prussia's fault. I thought he hadn't done anything to trigger it.

“We're going to let you talk to him for the last time” said the USA, who was been quiet the whole time.

“Saying goodbye when you know it's going to be the last time you say it… That is fuel to the sadness' fire.”

“Sure.”

I looked at him with an expression that meant "sure?". I was talking about how sad the situation was and he had said "sure". The American never understood when I talked like that. We spent some awkward minutes in silence, until I got too impatient.

“When am I going to see him?”

“I think we could go right now” said the USSR.

They finally took me to him, he looked almost peacefully calm. We were in a strange room, I didn't pay much attention to it. Prussia got up from the chair he was sitting on when he heard us. We both walked closer to each other. He smiled and I felt my heart hurting.

“Ich bin einfach…” (I just…) that sentence broke because I didn't have strength to talk about it.

I closed my eyes, feeling tears starting to fall. He touched my face, brushing them away. I tried to enjoy the touch of his skin, because I wouldn't be able to feel it anymore.

“Es ist ok Deutschland, du musst dich jetzt beruhigen.” (It's okay Germany, you need to calm down.)

“Beruhigen?! Wie im Namen Gottes soll ich etwas schaffen ohne dich?” (Calm down!? How am I supposed to do anything without you!?).

“Ich habe dich vereint um ein starkes Land zu sein, und ich habe meine Aufgabe erfüllt. Du wirst es noch verstehen.” (I unified you to be a strong country, and I succeed. You'll get over this.)

Every word he said made me feel even worse. He hadn't done anything wrong but following my instructions.

“Ich brauch dich, Ich hab dich immer gebraucht.” (I need you, I always have…)

I just wanted to talk to him for centuries, without caring about anyone else.

“Du hast mich niemals gebraucht, aber es war schön jemanden zu haben, der dich zum Leben brachte und nah war. Nicht jeder hat das.” (You have never needed me, but it was nice to have someone who brought you to life near you. Not everyone has that.)

“Ich will das nicht verlieren, ich will dich nicht verlieren.” (I don't want to lose it, I don't want to lose you.)

“Länder kommer und gehen, meine Zeit ist fertig.” (Countries come and go, my time is over.)

“Aber ich sollte derjenige sein der aufgelöst wird, ich hab es abgefucked.” (But I should be the one who is dissolved, I was the one who fucked up.)

“Du warst schon vorher gebrochen, geh nicht noch mehr kaputt. Du musst dir eines Tages vergeben.” (You're already been broken, don't ask for more. You'll have to forgive yourself someday.)

I finally dared to look into his eyes, he was crying too. I couldn't stand seeing him so destroyed, so weak. He was going to disappear and I couldn't do anything to avoid it. The Allies weren't going to stop their plan, no matter what I said. 

“It's time, Germany” I didn't want to turn around when I heard the UK's voice.

“No, give me more time please.”

“I can't.”

“Give them five more minutes” said France.

“Whatever.”

I turned around to mouth "thanks" to her. I hugged Prussia, not wanting to let him go. I had the feeling he was going to disappear too soon. 

“Ich wollte nur dass du auf mich stolz bist. Das ist alles was ich immer wollte.” (I just wanted you to be proud of me. That's what I always wanted.)

“Ich bin stolz.” (I am.)

“Lüg nicht. Wie könntest du, nach allem was ich gemacht habe?” (Don't lie. How could you be, after all I've done?)

That silence hurt me more than every war wound I had suffered. 

“Du hast keine Idee wie stolz ich bin! Ich weiss du hast zu viele Fehler gemacht, aber du wirst zurück auf die Matte kommen. Ich weiss das. Du wirst eine starke und mächtige Nation sein, und jeder wird dich lieben und um Hilfe fragen. Ich sehe dass du die Dinge richtig machen willst, und das wirst du auch.” (You have no idea how proud I am. I know you made too many mistakes, but you are will get back on your feet again. I just know. You'll be a powerful and important nation, and everyone will love you and ask you for help. I can see you want to do things the right way, and you will.)

“Hör auf das zu sagen…” (Stop saying that…)

I couldn't stand listening to what he was saying, I didn't believe any of it. How could the other countries love me? That sounded impossible to me.

“Ich liebe dich.” (I love you.)

“Preußen” (Prussia…)

“Erinner dich an mich, wenn ich weg bin, und hör auf die Alliierten, wir beide wissen, dass sie Recht haben.” (Remember me, when I'm gone, and listen to the Allies, we both know they are right.)

I knew they were, but I kept thinking Prussia didn't deserve this.

“Ich muss verschwinden, wir brauchen Frieden. Ich hätte sterben sollen, als du entstanden bist, aber ein Teil von dir zu sein, war wunderschön.” (I need to disappear, we need peace. I should've died when you were made, but being a part of you was amazing.)

“Es war.” (It was.)

“Ich wünschte ich könnte dich in ein paar Jahren sehen, ich weiss du wirst großartig sein. Erinner dich an mich, aber nicht zu viel, weil ich nicht besonders nett war.” (I wish I could see you in a few years, I know you'll do great. Remember me, but not too much because I wasn't really nice.)

I hid my face against his chest, knowing the end was near. I didn't want to talk, I just wanted to be with him. Before I knew it, I realized I could see through him. I broke the hug to touch his face, he was disappearing.

“Du kannst nicht einfach gehen, es ist zu früh.” (You can't go, it's too soon) my sobbing made my sentence hard to understand.

”Du wirst das Richtige machen, du musst. Ich hab Vertrauen in dich.” (You'll do great, you have to. I trust you.)

It didn't take long for him to completely disappear. I fell on my knees, not being able to see clearly because of all the tears I still had in my eyes. I knew the pain had just started, and that scared me even more. I could feel the other nations looking at me, I didn't turn around to look at them. I thought they were smiling and laughing, enjoying my pain. I deserved it, after all. 

Then, it all hit me. I felt like someone had cut off a part of my body, and the pain was too much to bare. I started screaming, trying to hold myself, like if that would make my hurting go away. I was trying to hug myself like if I was going to break in a million pieces. I couldn't take it anymore: the pain, the regret and now the loss. I didn't think it twice before hitting my head against the floor. I tried to do it again but I felt several people stopping me.

“Let me go!” I screamed.

“I know this sucks, but things will get better” said the USA.

I didn't understand how he dared saying that, he had no idea what I was feeling.

“You can't just kill yourself” France sounded worried.

But why was she worried? I had hurt her so much. Why did she care about me in that moment? It didn't make sense. She also hated Prussia, she always had.

“Oh trust me, nothing bad would happen” I was laughing, mostly at myself. “I already did and what happened is that I finally woke up from that madness.”

“You did what!?”

They all looked surprised, I was too. I didn't remember what happened the last months of the war. I definitely didn't remember what I just said.

“I want to drown. Your people will have more sea, and there will be no more wars, no more hate” I couldn't stop talking.

I woke up in my room, I didn't know if it had been a dream or if I had passed out. When I saw I was wearing the awful red, blue and white clothes, I knew it was true. I got up, realizing I had some bandages in my forehead. I took them off, I had already healed. I had a bit of blood ruining my hair. I didn't really care about it anymore, sometimes I just wanted to dye it black.

I went outside the room, needing to talk to someone. I saw the USSR, sitting on the couch. He was reading a red book. He looked at my direction, expecting me to say something. I sat down next to him, reading a bit of the book. I didn't speak Russian, so I had no idea what it was about. I guessed it was something about communism.

“How are you?” he asked, putting his book down.

“Empty.”

He sighed. I didn't like when he babysit me, it was awkward. He didn't like it either, but having a part of me made him happy. I preferred when it was France's turn, even though that wasn't really often. She was really good at cooking and didn't like talking about the war, the other countries were usually talking about it. 

“Can I go outside?” I asked.

“What do you want to do?”

“Visit Iceland.”

“Why the fuck are you friends?”

“Can I go or not?”

It was already humiliating to ask, if I had to explain my who are and why I liked my friends I would have preferred staying home all day.

“Whatever, remind me again…” I cut his question because I already knew what it was.

“USA's occupation.”

He looked surprised, he had asked that everytime I talked about the island nation. He wouldn't let me see anyone who had been with the Axis, but I didn't want to, either way. The first time I had said that Iceland had been neutral, and he didn't really like the idea of me visiting them. 

“I guess you can go.”

I went there as fast as I could without running, my body hurt a little. It didn't take long until I reached my destination. The door opened before I even knocked. I knew they had been waiting me.

“I wanted to see you, but I wasn't allowed” Iceland said.

I didn't say anything, trying not to cry again.


	20. 1937: The Spanish kids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case someone cares: I'm Spanish.
> 
> Spain was a republic from 1931 to 1939 (the end of the war). It was a period where a lot of progressive laws were made. In 1936 there was a civil war in Spain, between the Nationalists (right wing) and the Republicans (left). The sides were informally called Rojos (reds) and Azules (blues). The war ended in 1939, when the Nationalist side won. This would lead towards a dictatorship that ended in 1975. Spain was neutral in WW2, but it still helped the Axis.
> 
> During the Spanish civil war, the Soviet Union supported the Republicans. Nazi Germany helped the National side win the war and tried some planes in the battles. The most famous place where this happened is Guernica, there's a popular painting by Picasso about it.
> 
> Almost three thousand kids were evacuated by the Republican authorities to the Soviet Union, so they wouldn't suffer during the civil war. They were called los Niños de Russia (the kids of Russia). They received a nice welcome and treatment when they reached their destination.

Spain's POV

So, the point of view of my Republican side. I was hiding, but I knew he was going to find me eventually. My strategy was just staying behind a wall, he knew my place as much as myself.

“¿Dónde estás?” (where are you?) asked my Nationalist part.

I didn't answer, I wasn't stupid. I grabbed my gun, knowing a battle was about to take place soon. I heard his steps, coming closer to me. Then he stopped, I was confused because he started walking backwards. I felt relieved, being able to rest for a moment.

Then I heard a plane, and I looked at the sky, scared. It didn't take long until the bombs hit the ground. I fell onto the floor, looking up. I recognized the plane immediately, it wasn't Spanish.

“Puta nazi” (fucking Nazi) I whispered watching the Balkenkreuz in the plane flying over me.

I covered my ears with my hands, letting my gun go. The pain of the bombs was awful, but even worse when I couldn't stop thinking that my people were dying because some fascists couldn't stand a bit of change. I sat up, with my back against the wall. 

“Cada día luchas peor.” (You get worse at fighting every day).

I looked at the fascist, feeling a tear falling down my face. He was just like me, except his hair's color was a lighter brown than mine. He was wearing a uniform that honestly didn't suit him (maybe I just didn't like looking at myself dressed like that).

“Al menos no tengo que pedirle a nadie que venga y bombardee a mis enemigos” (At least I don't have to ask anyone to come and blitz my enemies) I said while getting up.

“No tuve que suplicar, tenemos un acuerdo.” (I didn't have to beg, we have an agreement).

At the end, I wouldn't join the the World War. And the alliance wasn't really good either, but I didn't know this in that moment. Neither of my sides knew anything about the future. Now that I know both sides of the story, it more complicated than I thought at the begining of the civil war.

I grabbed my pistol and shot him. I didn't think I had been able to aim well but he was bleeding. The Nationalist had a wound in his stomach, and it made him use the wall to gain support.

“¿Eso es todo lo que tienes?” (Is that all you've got?) he sounded like he was asking for more.

I got up and shot him again, and again, and again. His back was against the wall, painting it red with blood. I heard him hit the ground and I went away. It was late and I only wanted to rest so I would be able to keep fighting the next day.

I looked up to the sky, to see some clouds and the sun. It looked peaceful. I felt like I could finally breathe. Suddenly I heard a gunshot and felt the bullet. It hurt between my eyes. I fainted, but I still heard something before loosing consciousness.

“Rojo de mierda.” (Fucking red).

Next thing I felt was someone trying to wake me up. They managed to do it. I could feel the wounds had already healed, but I felt too tired after the bombings.

“Wake up comrade.”

I opened my eyes, seeing the USSR smiling. He was wearing one of those Russian hats in the middle of my land, that meant he was trying to do something important. If not, he wouldn't have been torturing himself like that. The Soviet was way taller than me. I've never been very tall, but he was a giant.

“How long have I been out?” I asked.

“I don't know. We talked yesterday, so not a lot.”

My head hurt a lot, and I realized we were in the middle of nowhere. I tried to get up but my legs were too weak.

“Can you help me?” I said, a little embarrassed.

“Конечно." (Of course).

He helped me getting up, puting his arm around my waist. I threw my own arm over his shoulders, getting the stability I needed to walk.

We got to my house, and I tried to feel safe for once. I threw myself on the couch, laying down.

“Give me some space, эгоист” (selfish) said the Soviet Union laughing.

I did as he said, staring at the red, yellow and purple flag in front of us. I was scared to disappear, the world tension was slowly escalating and I thought it wouldn't be good for me. The good guys always won, right? I didn't want to be scared, you need to be optimistic when you're fighting in a war.

“What are you thinking about, Испания?” (Spain).

“Do you think I'll win?”

“Yeah, you have to fight the fascists until the end.”

“I guess so.”

I hugged him, feeling safe for some seconds. That's all I wanted: safety. I felt liquid running down my back, and at the begining I thought it was just sweat.

“I'm not sure, but I think I'm bleeding” I said.

I got up, ignoring my shaking legs, and took my shirt off. The fabric was tainted by blood.

“Me cago en la puta.” (Damn it).

I sat down again, feeling a strange feeling in my stomach.

“You have a wound in your back, you shouldn't ignore it” said the Soviet Union.

“I have the feeling that this is going to hurt and I don't want it to.”

But it did. It was like someone was stabbing my stomach. I didn't want to cry, but my eyes started to sting. I could feel the lives of my people fading away. The Soviet left my side to kneel in front of me. I was hugging myself, not being able to do anything. I was squeezing too hard, but the physical pain was better than the one from the war. He grabbed my wrists, making me stop moving so much. The pain stopped, but I knew it was only a matter of time before something else happened.

“I can't take this anymore, URSS” (USSR) I said, feeling tears wetting my face.

He looked concerned, but I wasn't going to give up. I decided it was best to ask him for something.

“Can you do something for me?”

“What is it?”

I hesitated, but I had to ask.

“This suffering is pointless, a lot of innocent people are dying in the war. Can you… If I send you some of them, let's say kids, would you accept them?”

“I would” he smiled.

“I don't want them to die.”

I was a sobbing mess. Then, he hugged me, carefully avoiding the wound in my back. I hugged him back, staying like that for some minutes until I felt better. I pulled away and stared at him. I had the feeling that I looked pathetic, so I ended up closing my eyes. I didn't want him to see how stupid they looked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation notes
> 
> It's the first time I've translated something by myself (only the Spanish parts), so I want to say a couple of things. Just in case someone is interested.
> 
> "Puta nazi" (Spanish) = It is referred to a female, so Spain was talking about the personification of Germany, the character.
> 
> "Me cago en la puta" (Spanish) = An idiom that literally means "I shit on the bitch". I thought "damn it" was the best translation.
> 
> "Эгоист" (Russian) = A noun, someone who is selfish. This word doesn't exist in English.


	21. 2020: Lockdown mood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because of covid-19, most of the world went on lockdown in April 2020. The European Union wanted to make an agreement to lend money to countries that had been affected the most. Italy, Spain, France and Portugal asked for them because they had a lot of cases of COVID-19. They asked about something that would make the crisis more equal to everyone, so they didn't suffer more than the rest and the richest countries could help the poorest ones. The Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Finland didn't like the idea.
> 
> France managed to convince Germany, and Denmark and Sweden opposed this initiative. At the end, the Mediterraneans won.
> 
> Icelandic is one of the hardest languages to learn. Iceland is in a different time zone than most countries in Europe, with two hours of difference in summer. Most Danes have to study German at school, and they don't really like it. Iceland used to be Danish until 1944, but Icelandic kids still study Danish at school. They are bad at it because they hate it.
> 
> Iceland's name in Icelandic is "Ísland". "Ís" means "ice", but now it's also used to say "ice cream".
> 
> After Germany's defeat in WW1, the situation was really bad. Not only the humiliation from the Treaty of Versailles (mostly by the UK and France), but also the debt, the hyperinflation, the economic crisis and the French occupied territories of Germany because the Germans could pay the war reparations. This led to a lot of hate and feelings of revenge, and it would end up creating the Third Reich.
> 
> During WW2 Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany (and so was France), so the UK occupied Iceland. A year later, the USA would be the one to control this island, and they still have a military base in Keflavík.
> 
> Germany's name is really different in other languages. For example Tyskland (Swedish), Alemania (Spanish), Doitsu (Japanese, but I wrote it with latin alphabet), and Saksa (Finnish). I don't know exactly why, but I think it's because Germany was created as a unification of a lot of nations in 1870 and these names used to refer to some of those nations.
> 
> After WW2 it's hard to find Germans being proud of their country, most of them don't feel comfortable seeing the German flag somewhere that's not a political or official building. Unless it's football.
> 
> Germans are known for working a lot and being efficient.
> 
> After the French revolution, where they cut the king and queen's heads off, the French seem to always fight for their rights. They are usually on strike.

Germany's POV

I sighed, looking at my phone. I saw the seconds pass in the app's clock. I paused the session and butied my face in my hands. Then I tried to pronounce "skilnaður" a few times, but I just couldn't. Maybe it was strange to be saying "divorce" in Icelandic with a really thick German accent at 2 a.m. The "r" was impossible for me to roll, I just couldn't. And the fact that I couldn't pronounce the letter "ð" or just English "th" didn't help at all. I gave up, throwing my phone away. My phone then made a sound, telling me I had received a notification.

It was a text message from France, she was asking me if I was doing something important. I answered "I'm studying Icelandic". Her next message was "you could do more important things… like me". I smiled, missing her. Actually missing the entire world. I was locked inside my house and it had become boring. I looked at myself, avoiding looking at my arm. I was wearing a tank top with the French flag. It just felt right, much better than mine. Then I heard my phone again, and immediately knew it was Frankreich. I was trying to study and she was distracting me. It didn't really matter because I was really bad at Icelandic.

I went to the closet, looking at the different jackets I owned. I grabbed a black one and put it on. My phone looked like it was about to blow up with so many notifications, most of them were just stupid video recommendations. I was bored, but after learning Yakko's world's lyrics, it was even more boring. The stupid song then got stuck in my head. United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru. I was really bored to learn the entire song by heart. I tried to videocall Iceland, but they didn't pick up.

Republic Dominican, Cuba, Caribbean, Greenland, El Salvador too. It was also late in Reykjavík. I shook my head, trying to get the song out of it. Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guyana, and still. Quarantine was hard, even more at the begining. The island nation wasn't picking up the phone yet and I was becoming anxious. They were probably sleeping, as someone should be at midnight. France was awake, although I didn't know what she was doing. I couldn't sleep, as usual. Even though I hadn't had really bad nights in a row for years, the situation was triggering my fears. But Iceland should have been sleeping, and I was bothering them. Guatemala, Bolivia, then Argentina, and Ecuador, Chile, Brazil. I really hoped their phone was turned off, I didn't want to wake them.

At this point I was panicking. I really needed help with Icelandic, something inside of me that say told me I had to study. Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda, Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan. And my mind was just singing, great. Although I preferred a stupid song than war flashbacks, to be honest. Paraguay, Uruguay, Suriname, and French Guiana, Barbados, and Guam. I tried to breathe calmly, thinking it was okay and I could just study the next day. Norway and Sweden and Iceland and Finland and Germany now in one piece. Yay.

“Hæ.” (Hi).

I didn't even notice when Iceland picked up the phone. They looked okay, wearing a lopapeysa while eating ice cream.

“Hi” I answered.

“I was in the kitchen, I wanted ice cream. Do you need something? It's just really late.”

“I was trying to study but I just can't with the pronunciation.”

“Same, the r kills me”.

That made me laugh, we couldn't pronounce each other's "r"s. When I tried it, it sounded like I was saying a strange "g" and when Iceland tried it, they sounded like they were choking (I didn't think so, I actually found it cute).

“Does the fact that I started learning Icelandic just some months ago count as an excuse?” I said half joking.

“I guess, I've been studying Danish for centuries and I still suck at it.”

“You're not even trying.”

“I'm not trying!? I was the one who made her German homework!”

I smiled at their reaction. Iceland loved my language, so they didn't care about Denmark's laziness to study it. The brown-haired nation got up to throw away the ice cream stick. I could hear them humming 14 ár.

“I'm not called Ísland for nothing” said Iceland when they returned.

I looked at their wrists. The right one had two bracelets almost identical, the only difference was that one had a Norwegian flag and the other the Danish one. There was also a festival bracelet that said "Berlin", with drawings of my capital's most famous places. On the left wrist, they wore a really ugly bracelet that looked like the USA's flag. They had to wear it because of the militar base in Keflavík.

“I wish I could take it off” said Iceland.

“Was it so obvious that I was starting at it?”

“Yes, but that's okay. I just wish someday he'll leave and I'll be able to feel peaceful again.”

“United states is like that, he's protecting you.”

“We all know he only wants my strategic position. After all, "we're al living in Amerika"…” Iceland sang.

I almost laughed, but it was too true to joke about it. USA loved war too much. Maybe we all did. No…

“How is your pronunciation of the double "kk"? Like "sokkar".

Iceland could read me like no one else, and they knew when I needed to talk about something else.

”It's impossible.“

”It isn't, it's just hard and you aren't used to it.“

”Ich denke nicht mehr dass Isländisch eine nette Sprache ist“ (I don't think Icelandic is a nice language anymore).

“Sambandslýðveldið Þýskaland, what did you just say?” (Federal Republic of Germany).

“That's me, right?”

I knew that was my complete name, but I played dumb.

“Of course it's you, and you know how to say your name in most languages. Why are you pretending not to understand me?”

”Entschuldigung, ich verstehe nicht.“ (Sorry, I don't understand).

Iceland smiled, having understood what I had said. Then they yawned, I looked at the clock and it was really late.

”Why are you still awake?“ I asked.

”I was reading a story online, and I love it so much.“

”So you are still reading at midnight?“

”You know me, this is what I do.“

”By the way, I saw the word "engin", but it was pronounced in a strange way.“

”Oh okay, that's because "eng" is pronounced "eing".“

”Can you please explain it to me tomorrow, I feel like you should go to sleep.“

”It's unfair, you should sleep too.“

”I will, but not now.“

I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep that night, I could feel it.

”Gute Nacht, Þýskaland. Please try to sleep“ the island said. (Good night, Germany).

”Góða nótt, Island. I'll try.“ (Good night, Iceland).

I ended the call, not knowing what to do next. I was bored, and I missed human contact. I really needed a hug, someone to tell me everything was going to be okay. I needed someone to distract me before my mind started bringing back memories.

I got another notification. France was still texting me. She had sent me a lot of messages like "I'm bored", "please answer", "I hope you're sleeping" and "I miss you, my love". It was late, so she should have been sleeping. I hesitated, knowing that maybe if I pretended to be asleep, she would finally go to bed. I didn't want her to stay awake at night because of me. I ended up calling her.

”Allemange, I thought you were sleeping.“ (Germany).

France was wearing a pajama with my flag on the top. She was beautiful, but the sight of her with my flag sent shivers down my spine. I didn't like enjoying it. It scared me.

”You wish.“

”I actually do. I also wish I was with you. I miss you, mon trésor.“ (my treasure).

”I miss you too.“

I blushed a little while saying that. It was unfair, she could say whatever she wanted without blushing. She only did when I spoke French, but that was very hard.

”Why are you still awake?“ I asked her.

”I was crocheting.“

”At least you are doing something useful.“

”What does that mean? Aren't you expending your free time in something useful? I can't believe it!“

”I was studying Icelandic.“

She laughed. Not a lot of people knew a lot about Icelandic, but everyone thought it was a very difficult language.

”How hard is it?“ she looked genuinely interested.

”It's one of the hardest languages to learn. I don't even know why I haven't quit yet. I guess I like it too much.“

”But Germanic languages are similar and you speak two of them already. Don't they help?“

”A little, but if you compare Icelandic's and German's grammars, mine is really easy.“

”I think you may be biased.“

”I'm not!“ I couldn't help but laugh.

I had spent hours studying non-stop and I was tired. I still had a lot of things to do

”We should plan the next EU meeting“ I said.

”I'm glad you changed your mind about the money.“

”I think I just needed someone to open my eyes, and you are the only one who can do that.“

”Süß“ her smile was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. (Sweet/cute).

”C'est varai.“ (It's true).

I did it. She blushed and looked away from the camera.

”Oh cute little Germany, I love you so much.“

I wasn't expecting that, I never was. I never got used to our relationship, every day felt like the first one. She said I was cute. I told myself not to panic. I felt like I did in the in the 1870s, back when I was like a child.

Her coughing brought me back to reality. I couldn't help but worry, we were all suffering.

”I wouldn't have believed this if someone had told me some months ago“ France said.

”Me neither.“

”We should go to sleep.“

”I can't.“

”I wish I could hug you. Imagine I am.“

I smiled, without being really satisfied. I needed her arms around me, to feel her with me.

”I wish I had enough words to describe how amazing you are“ I said.

”Oh really? Why is that?“

”Because I love you and I'd leave everything behind for you. I want to leave myself and I don't even understand why. I want to wear your flag hanging from my neck, or it to be mine. I want it, I want you, I love you.“

”Don't get me wrong, that was beautiful, but take that back.“

I didn't understand what I had said wrong, it was just how I felt. France covered her face with her hands.

”Bacause you are yourself and that's why I love you. I love how you always have to finish work before having fun, the fact that you are always on time. Allemagne, I love you even if you don't, because I know you can't stand yourself. I hope someday my love for you is enough and it makes you feel as loved as the others feel, even if your people aren't like mine during our national days. Will you ever understand that?“

I didn't answer, because I didn't think I would. I still couldn't believe she had forgiven me, because I hadn't, nor wanted to be forgiven. I grabbed the end of my left sleeve, scared of what could happen if it revealed what was under it.

”I'm sorry“ I said without thinking.

”I know, and I'm sorry too. It was also my fault.“

After those words I sobbed a little, I had been not trying to, but she sounded so guilty. I didn't blame her, not at all.

I only blamed myself.

”I know what you're thinking, and I wish I could kiss you and let you forget all those memories for some minutes. You never seem to see the good things.“

”Tell me a good thing.“

”You and I are going to save Europe. We'll help Italy and Spain the most, and the Netherlands will be angry at us. We won't care about that, we will have helped the nations that needed it the most.“

”I'm doing what everyone should do.“

She laughed sarcastically, she looked beautiful while doing it.

”Tell that to Austria, Denmark and Sweden, you are friends with them“ she said.

”Not much with Sweden, he wouldn't listen to me.“

”And Austria likes you too much and still didn't listen to us.“

”Likes.“

”It's a nice euphemism.“

I giggled, she meant something I didn't agree with, but the way she said it was funny to me.

”Frankreich, you should go to sleep.“

”You too.“

”I'm not sleepy.“

Then I yawned.

”Ach Scheiße“ (ah shit) I cursed.

”Are you sure about that?“

I closed my eyes for two seconds, not one more after seeing a vision of something I definitely not wanted to see.

”I'm sure.“

”I can stay awake all night until you fall asleep, I don't have anything better to do.“

”Don't you have to do something tomorrow? With your goverment?“

”Then I'll go on strike.“

”You can't just go on strike so much!“ I was joking, of course she could.

”Of course I can! La France is never satisfied!“

”You are really unique, I've never seen any other nation fighting so much for their rights. Your place seems to be one of the few where Twitter hasn't replaced the street.“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation notes
> 
> "Gute Nacht" and "Island" are in German.
> 
> "Góða nótt" and "Þýskaland" are in Icelandic.


	22. 1940: Iceland's adventures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you read this chapter, I want to say that Iceland's love and sexual relationships aren't accurate at all. This is the only thing I've made up completely.
> 
> Also, sorry for adding more basic information to old characters, I'll fix it someday, probably when I stop writing this. This is the problem with posting a chapter at a time, you can't change the past because someone has already read it.
> 
> The Vikings went to Canada in the 10th century. They came from Greenland, after arriving from Iceland.
> 
> France and the United Kingdom have been in a lot wars against each other, but they eventually stopped and started getting along. There's still nowadays a little love-hate between them.
> 
> World War 2 started in 1939 and ended in 1945. The Germans in both World Wars were called "krauts", it was a derogatory name.
> 
> Denmark and Norway were occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940, because of this the Danish territories of Iceland and the Faroe Islands were occupied by the UK in the year 1940. The rest of information about the war is pretty basic, and I've already explained it in previous chapters.
> 
> Iceland became independent in 1944, after a pact with Denmark got broken because of the Danish goverment not being able to do anything because of this country's occupation.
> 
> The lopapeysa is a typical Icelandic sweater.

Iceland's POV

I finally got home. I was wearing winter clothes because it was December, and Denmark's home was really cold in that period of time. Before getting inside, I checked the mailbox, but it was empty. I opened the door, not expecting a nice welcome after leaving like I had the day before.

I closed the door and started hearing kissing sounds. I opened the door and closed it again to make as much noise as I could.

“Halló, I'm home!” (hello) I screamed.

Faroe and Greenland ran towards the entrance, relieved to see me. They were fully clothed, that surprised me.

“Iceland! Where were you?” asked Faroe. “We were worried.”

I didn't say anything, and walked away until I reached the sofa in the living room. They of course followed me.

“Yesterday, I decided to visit Hong Kong.”

“I still don't understand why you are dating him” said Greenland.

He looked worried, I guessed he could see that there was something wrong.

“You've been saying that for an entire month, since I started seeing him.”

“What happened?”

“He was with someone else.”

They were shocked, my mind was telling me I was stupid for trusting someone so far away from me. We didn't have anything in common.

“Who was it?” asked Faroe.

She sounded scared, not wanting to hurt me. I almost laughed, it was pathetic, I was pathetic.

“I didn't see them, but there was someone else there. I heard them, and when I went inside of the room, Hong Kong was naked and looked guilty. He said "this isn't what it looks like", yeah well…”

There was an awkward silence for some seconds. I couldn't take it anymore, I just wanted to finish the story and go away.

“I broke up with him.”

“Well done, he doesn't deserve you” said Greenland.

Faroe didn't say anything, she instead hugged me. It didn't take long for me to hug her back. We separated a little later.

“Then who did you spend the night with?”

I couldn't answer that, a voice reminded me “this won't happen again, so let's not talk about this ever again. And don't worry, I'll forget about this… incident”.

“I was with a friend” I lied.

“Okay, if you don't want to tell us, you don't have to” Greenland understood.

“Thank you.”

“Aren't you going to take off your gloves and hat?” Faroe asked curiously.

I took them off, being scared of my neck revealing too much. Luckily it didn't, the mark was lower and my lopapeysa and jacket were covering it. I had thought marking someone like that was a strange thing to do, but I wasn't thinking at the time.

“Tell me at least they aren't in the war” Greenland couldn't let it go.

“Of course not, Greenland, who do you think I am?”

I didn't want to lie to him, but I had to. I fell into temptation and it was only my fault. I looked at my watch, my ugly British watch. I didn't even look at what time it was, I just needed to remind myself that I was just an occupied territory waiting for independence in the middle of a world war.

“I'm going to my room” I said, getting up.

“If you need anything, we're here for you.”

“Takk. You guys are really nice, you shouldn't be.” (Thanks).

“What do you mean?” Faroe said confused.

“I broke the rules.”

They didn't get to reply to that, because I had already left. I locked the door of my room and sat on my bed. I didn't want to think about what I had done the day before, but I needed to. I saw a Danish flag next to me, I never figured out where to put it. I grabbed it and brought it to my chest.

“Jeg savner dig…” (I miss you).

Even though I wanted independence, that didn't mean I didn't want to see her again. I left the Dannebrog in the floor, before taking off my shoes, and did the same with my jacket. I wanted to curl up in my bed and cry. Wars make you feel lonely, because they take away people from you. But this one was even worse, because Norway and Denmark weren't gone fighting, they wouldn't come back at the end of the day. They had been occupied, and unless the Allies won, maybe they would never return. I hadn't felt like that before, I had always had someone with me. I threw my jacket onto the floor, not feeling like doing anything.

A strange noise came from the cloth when it hit the floor. It sounded like metal, but that didn't make sense because I didn't remember putting something in my pocket. I got up and then kneeled next to it. I saw something inside the left pocket, and even though I was very scared, I still wanted to know what it was.

It was cold, and it had a strange shape. I also felt a rope, so it was a necklace. I grabbed it and pulled it out of the pocket. It fell onto the ground again after I saw what it was.

“Þetta er slæmt, þetta er mjög slæmt... Hvað í ósköponum á ég að gera við þennan hlut?” (This is bad, this is really bad… What am I supposed to do with this thing?)

It was a pretty nice necklace, but I couldn't like it. I had to hide it, no one could know I had it. I kept it in a box, closed under lock and key. Then I realized I was shaking, I feel guilty for not having realized it had been given to me. It didn't make sense, why was I supposed to do with it?

I took off my lopapeysa, and saw it had a little blood stain. I wasn't surprised, but it also wasn't expecting it. And there it was, that mark below my left collarbone. I hadn't payed much attention to it even though I was shocked when I saw that knife getting pulled out. I sighed, the wound was closed but it wasn't healing. It didn't make any sense, because wounds only don't heal when we want to have them (but we weren't supposed to have them unless it was a cool scar with a personal meaning) and I didn't want the mark… right? I put on clean clothes, hoping no one would notice.

I couldn't help but remember what had happened. I had never felt better with someone, it was like those lips were freeing me, in a good way. I wondered why that happened, I wasn't thinking straight and it would probably have terrible consequences. Even though I knew it was wrong, that gave me more reasons to do it, it felt exciting, dangerous. But it wasn't that bad, I could have slept with way worse people, right? I was so stupid in this period of time.

I decided to go to the living room, to find Faroe and Greenland talking. There was a huge Danish flag in the wall, and it felt so bad to look at it.

“Are you feeling better?” Faroe asked me.

“Not really.”

I sat on the sofa, ignoring that my eyes were getting wetter.

“We were gossiping” said Greenland.

“About who?” I was actually curious.

“I heard Portugal and Chile are dating.”

“No way.”

“I don't know who told you that, but I don't think it's true” said Faroe.

That's how we spent our days, gossiping. Not only that, I also wrote a lot to Denmark, I knew she would never receive my letters though, but it made me feel better.

“I heard France and the United Kingdom broke up” said Faroe.

Greenland and I were both shocked, it couldn't be. France and the UK were the perfect couple, who had learned to love each other after so many wars.

“That's impossible” I said.

“Can you keep a secret?” said Faroe “It's true. I read the letter in United Kingdom's office.”

“No way!”

“I saw an envelope on the desk, he had gone out for some minutes to do whatever I don't remember nor care. There was a huge swastika in the envelope, just like in the ones Denmark sends!”

“So you read it?” I asked.

“Only some parts, it said "I'm writing to you because I found out about what you did" blah blah "I thought you loved me, but you clearly don't if you go around kissing other people"”

Greenland and I gasped in shock, that was one of the most interesting things that were happening in that moment. Obviously the things we wanted to think about, and the war wasn't included in that list.

“"And it's even worse because not only…" and then I heard steps and had to stop reading. UK cought me close to the letter and thought I was only thinking it was disgusting because it came from Germany's territory. He even said it: "don't worry about that, I know it's horrible and I don't think I should have that kraut's symbols here. I'll put it away".”

“That's amazing” Greenland expressed.

“Speaking about her, I met her the other day, then I ran away. I hate to say it, but she looked awesomely intimidating, her hair and uniform creeped me out. She looked, like she is actually perfect.”

“You did well by running away.”

“But then she said something in German I remember exactly what she said, you know my memory is really good. The problem is that I didn't understand anything.”

”Maybe we can figure it out together“ I said.

”"Alle ihr Dänen seid so süß, es ist unmöglich Hässlichkeit in Dänemark zu finden. Schau mich nicht so an, ich werde kein Englisch sprechen. Ich will nicht, dass du verstehst was ich sage." I know my German is really bad, but she said that.“ (All you Danes are so cute, it's impossible to find ugliness in Denmark. Don't look at me like that, I won't speak English. I don't want you to understand what I'm saying).

”Something about Denmark and English.“

”I was scared because I didn't understand anything, and also because she's terrifying. Then she told me something with her horrible accent. It was "zo if youg not ze piece of ice, nog ze geal piece of ice, I don't know vat to call you". She was laughing, I didn't answer.”

I didn't cringe anymore, the fact that I got called "Piece of Ice" was almost funny. It made me feel like she was just mocking me, so she didn't care about me. Then Greenland was the real one because he wasn't green, but ice. This joke is so old.

“You imitation of her accent made it so much better” now I was the one who was laughing.

“Did she forget how to speak English?”

“She fakes her accent to prove she doesn't like to speak English because "it's an inferior language"” I explained drawing the quotation marks in the air.

“How do you know that?” asked Greenland.

“Denmark explained it in a letter she sent me.”

“The letters she sends me are like tragedies” Faroe was outraged.

“She usually writes to me because she thinks I don't read them. At least your answers get to her.”

I could feel my anger building up, I just wanted to talk to Denmark, I missed her so much. Faroe looked sad and guilty.

“But everytime we mention you, she answers saying that some things got censored” she said.

“Of course.”

I didn't know why they could send letters but not me. We had tried everything, once I send a letter saying I was Faroe but obviously there isn't any of them that can arrive to her before being read before.

“We were talking about the UK cheating on France.”

Greenland couldn't let it go, but honestly me neither.

“Maybe it was Canada” she said.

“I don't think it was Vinland” said Greenland.

“You can't call him that.”

”It's his name“ I said. ”But still, I don't think it was him either.“

”Then who was it“

”I don't know.“

Then I was intrigued, it wasn't any of my business, but it was still interesting. I felt like I needed to know, probably because I felt bad for France, we were in the same situation.

”Okay, so she found out even though she's locked up, so someone told her, correct?“ I said.

”Yeah“ they both answered.

”Who told her?“

”Noooo, the Nazi wouldn't do anything nice and she hates France“ Faroe sounded sure of what she was saying.

”Maybe Germany lied to make them break up.“

We looked at Greenland, he looked calm, like he definitely knew the truth. His theory made sense, but France wasn't stupid, she would have known it was a lie, or that's what I thought. I wanted to know the real story, but it was impossible.

”May I ask Ice, what did you see in Hong Kong that made you want to date him?“ Faroe asked.

Easy, it was loneliness. I felt alone and I just wanted someone to hug and kiss, who would tell me everything was going to be alright even if the world was being destroyed. I felt alone because Faroe and Greenland were dating, and I could only talk with Sweden because he was the only neutral Nordic country. Of course I liked him, but not as much as Denmark and Norway. I was alone and felt like I wanted an adventure, something different.

”Not particular reason, I just thought he was cute“ I said.

They believed me. I lied a lot during the war, I didn't want anyone to know my true feelings. The only place you could find what I felt was in my letters, and I was sure no one read them.

”We're here if you want to talk about it.“

”I just can't understand why people cheat, he should've just broken up with me instead of this. But then he lied and that makes it even worse. But after all, it's my fault for being with him.“

”It's not your fault!“ Greenland raised his voice when he spoke.

”Are you sure about that? I shouldn't have dated him, we have nothing in common.“

”That's what love is about, teaching nice things they don't know about because you're different. Love is about caring and learning, you didn't do anything wrong.“

”But I did, I made a mistake last night.“

”Is this about Hong Kong?“

I didn't want to answer, I had already said too much. I lowered my head, not wanting to look at them.

”Can you at least tell us something?“

I couldn't say no to Faroe, but I also didn't want to explain it.

”Before you jump into weird conclusions, they are neutral“ I made a pause, looking up to see the Danish flag, it seemed to be looking at me. ”But they are an independent nation, that's why it was a mistake and I can't talk about it.“

They seemed to understand, knowing I had reasons not to tell them the entire story. I felt horrible, Denmark wasn't there but her flag was making me feel very uncomfortable.

”We're here if you need us“ said Greenland.

”Thank you guys, you're awesome.“

I felt stupid, for some reason I had felt alone, but I never was. They had always been there for me, but I was being too selfish to notice. I had thought I was the only one who was suffering, even though the war involved everyone in a way or another. I wasn't alone in the world, more people were suffering and my pain compared to theirs was a joke.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Jeg savner dig…” is Danish


	23. 1975: Cod War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all I want to say that I'm really busy with school, so I won't be able to post much. I'm sorry to those three people who read this.
> 
> Iceland was occupied by the UK and then the USA in WW2, but there's was no resistance because they even made roads for the Icelanders. The USA hasn't left yet, they still have a base in Iceland and pay this country for it. 
> 
> The Cold War was a conflict fought mostly between the USA and the Soviet Union. They didn't attack each other directly, but they had nukes so everyone was panicking because of the possibility of a nuclear war.
> 
> The world got divided between the West and the East, and especially Europe was divided. There was an Iron Curtain separating the Western (capitalist) countries and the Eastern (communist) ones. After WW2 Germany got divided this way, East and West, even being different counteies. They built a wall in Berlin (this city was in the East but half of it was considered Western), to prevent the East Germans to escape to the West. Germany would eventually reunify in 1990. At the begining they were optimistic about it, but in the 60s West Germans started thinking this would never happen.
> 
> Iceland could only fish in a very small place in the ocean. Because of that, the Cod Wars (1950-1976) happened. Those waters belong to the UK, but these "wars" weren't really wars. Only a man died in them and it all ended when Iceland threatened to leave NATO. The USA didn't want to lose the strategic position of the island for the Cold War, so they persuaded the Brits to give in. This is the only "war" where Iceland has actively participated. Denmark (only in the second one), Belgium and West Germany also participated by the side of the UK, but they didn't do much, so maybe it's just me, but I wonder why they were involved in the first place.
> 
> Iceland doesn't have an army. Tintin is a Belgian book.
> 
> By the way, I deleted some drama I had written. It wasn't related to this story, I just wanted my characters to suffer.

Iceland's POV

We were in a small room, with a square table. I was sitting in front of the United Kingdom and at our sides were West Germany and Belgium. These last two didn't seem to care much, they both looked busyi with their own things.

UK was wearing his navy uniform, the rest of us looked normal. Well, not exactly normal, but we weren't wearing anything that looked like that was a real war. I did wear a jacket tied around my waist, because my pants made me feel a little dysphoric. But I felt so strange seeing him like that, with all those medals he wore so proudly.

“So, why do you want more territory to fish? You're a small nation.”

“You realize my economy mostly depends from fish, right?”

“You haven't really answered me.”

“And you have plenty of place to fish, so why not letting me do it around my territory? I'm literally asking for 200 miles, it's nothing.”

“Nothing you say!? They are my waters.”

“But you have many miles and many other things to export.”

“Belgium, tell them.”

Belgium looked at me like he had just woken up, he hadn't been listening to our conversation.

“Oh yes, you should do what Britain says.”

“Which is?” I asked.

“Not asking for more miles to fish?” he was too insecure while asking that to know what we had been talking about.

“Exactly, what do you have to say, West Germany?”

Germany sighed, dropping a pen she had been using to draw or write something.

“I get it, we don't want Iceland to be able to fish in so many places, but it's not like we'll convince them to just stop asking for it.”

“Oh come on. Where is your optimism?”

I realized the United Kingdom hadn't thought before talking. I just hoped she wouldn't get too angry.

“It's at the other side of the Wall, now leave me alone please.”

He looked embarrassed when he realized what he had said. We had heard East Germany was still optimistic, not like his West. She had lost her optimism in the 60s. We didn't really know about him, because we had only met a few times. He was a male version of his West, but smiled more, even if that smile was fake. I liked to call them Ger-many, like the word "many", because there were more than one. I used to think it was funny and quicker to say. Both of them found it nice, but they said it was because I was the one who said it.

“As I was saying, you should just listen to me” the United Kingdom's voice was starting to be too annoying.

“At least apologize.”

“Ice, it's really not important” Germany looked like she was drawing something again, trying to ignore us.

“I'm sorry West, I shouldn't have said that. I didn't mean it.”

“Mach dir keine sorgen.”

She just kept drawing, like nothing had happened. I crossed my legs, wanting to get out of there.

“Even the commies don't want you to expand your waters” said the UK.

“So it's okay because the communist countries say so? Is that how it works? I thought you didn't like them.”

“That's not what I meant.”

“It definitely sounded like that. I've never read Tintin”

“What?”

Then he turned to Belgium and saw him reading.

“I see you're not very interested in this, are you Belgium?” UK sounded pissed.

“Oh, it's just that you're both arguing about the same topic over and over. It's annoying. I'll start listening when you actually say something useful.”

“Are we talking about the same thing over and over again?” he sounded sad.

“Yeah.”

“So we're wasting time.”

No one answered. I then yawned. It was a pointless meeting but it was better than fighting. I didn't have an army and NATO members aren't supposy to fight against each other. United Kingdom got up and started to walk towards me. He stopped when he was right behind Germany and for a second looked at what she was drawing.

“What does "nichts" mean?” he said.

“Nothing.”

“Okay, you don't have to be so rude, West.”

“It literally means "nothing".”

“Oh.”

“And can you please stop calling me West? You know I don't like it.”

“Yes, sorry.”

I wanted to laugh at how awkward the situation was. I could see she was drawing the East German flag, and then it had a word on top of it. I understood what she meant with it, I guessed I was the only one who did. United Kingdom got closer to me and sat down on the table. I wanted him to stay away from me, I don't usually like human contact.

“Can you not get so close to me? I feel uncomfortable.”

“I thought we were close.”

“Why? Because we had sex back in the war?”

Belgium started coughing, we looked at him, thinking maybe he was sick. But he was just shocked.

“You what!?”

“I thought everyone knew” it was my turn to be shocked.

“But when was that?” 

He had asked that a bit scared, like implying something I didn't like at all.

“Don't worry, I was already independent. I wouldn't have done it if I had been Danish at that time.”

Oh, really? Haha.

Everyone in the room looked disgusted when they thought about that possibility. 

“I want to think he didn't mean that Island, that would have been awful.”

“True, Þýskaland. But back to the point, sorry Bretland, I need space. Go away” I said.

“Iceland, why can't we just be friends and do this in a nice peaceful way?”

“Because we can't. Do I have to remind you that I can't just be a friend of someone who occupied me just some years ago?”

“You let me in and made tea and biscuits for me.”

“Eh, true. But still, I didn't want you there.”

“You're lying, you wanted the money and you got it. We even built roads for you.”

“I like money and new roads, we all do, so leave me alone.”

“To be honest, I don't really care about any of this, can I go home already?” said Belgium.

“I want to go home too” I complained.

United Kingdom was looking at me. He was so disappointed for some reason. I wondered if he has thought I'd change my mind after just telling me that I was wrong.

“Maybe you should stop trying. You don't really need it anyway.”

I stared at him, trying to find some sarcasm in his voice. But no, he wasn't joking. I was about to go away when he tried to stop me with his words. 

“You realise I'm trying to help you, right?”

I got up looking at him in the eye, trying to defy him. He was trying to look strong, but I had known him for centuries, so it was obvious that he was scared. Scared of me. Powerless little me. Pathetic. How could had been so relieved when he occupied me? Why had I liked it? I couldn't understand. 

“We all want to help you” he continued.

“Being here listening to this doesn't mean we're with you. And being with you doesn't mean we're with you either. It's a conflict where we must agree with our colonialist egocentric interests. Maybe we should all understand that our glorious times are over and stop oppressing others” said Germany.

“Is that one of your strange metaphors?”

“Oh, I was philosophizing about myself, don't mind me.”

She was not, at least not only about her.

“As I was saying…”

To be honest, I wasn't listening. I started thinking about everything but the ocean.

“Right?”

I had to answer something.

“No.”

“Blimey.“

“Well, I should go home, bye” I said starting walking out of the room. 

“Okay…”

We both turned to the other two nations, Belgium was yawning and Germany was still drawing. I then kept going.

“Belgium, can you not fall asleep?”

“I'm trying!”

“And you're no better, West, why are you drawing flags of both Western and Eastern nations?”

I was already far but I could still hear the conversation.

“Because I'm bored and I felt like drawing this. You know drawing small things relaxes me.”

“And you don't know what to draw if it's…” I didn't hear the rest, but I didn't like the tone he had used.

I suddenly stopped walking, I stood there, about to turn around. Then I heard noises and before I knew it, Germany had left. She walked past me, grabbing my hand in the process. We walked together. I only realized she was shaking when our fingers touched, she had gotten very good at hiding her feelings. I felt a piece of paper between us. We walked together until we had to go different ways. Neither of us said anything, there was no need to. I then read her message "I'm sorry, I don't really care about this“. 

I went to Norway place, I thought he'd understand me. He opened the door before I knocked.

”How was the meeting?“

”It was horrible.“

I walked in, going to the living room.

”I just don't understand him.“

”But those are his waters, so it makes sense that he's defending them.“

”So you're with him too.“

”No…“

”Afhverju ertu að segja þetta? Ég get ekki trúið því að þú virkilega trúir þessu. Það brítur hjartað mitt að þvi þú átt að þykja vænt um mig. Mér þykir vænt um þig, en greinilega er þér alveg sama með alla þegar þeir leggja mig í einelti. Hættu því, hættu að reynað fatta hvað ég er að segja. Þú ert að reynað skilja tungumálið mitt, en ekki orðin mín, eða markmiðin mín. Þú villt ekki skilja mína aðstæðu, og þú virkilega ættir að gera það. Ef ég get ekki treyst þér. Þá get ég ekki treyst neinum...”

I ran out of his house, being scared because I was feeling alone once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mach dir keine sorgen (German) = Don't worry
> 
> Island (German) = Iceland
> 
> Þýskaland (Icelandic) = Germany
> 
> Bretland (Icelandic) = United Kingdom  
> ”Afhverju ertu að segja þetta? Ég get ekki trúið því að þú virkilega trúir þessu. Það brítur hjartað mitt að þvi þú átt að þykja vænt um mig. Mér þykir vænt um þig, en greinilega er þér alveg sama með alla þegar þeir leggja mig í einelti. Hættu því, hættu að reynað fatta hvað ég er að segja. Þú ert að reynað skilja tungumálið mitt, en ekki orðin mín, eða markmiðin mín. Þú villt ekki skilja mína aðstæðu, og þú virkilega ættir að gera það. Ef ég get ekki treyst þér. Þá get ég ekki treyst neinum... (Icelandic) = Why are you saying this? I can't believe you actually believe that. It breaks my heart because you are supposed to care about me. I do care about you, but apparently you're okay with everyone bullying me. Stop it, stop trying to figure out what I'm saying. You're trying to understand my language, but not my words, nor my goals. You don't want to understand my situation, and you definitely should. If I can't trust you, I can't trust anyone…


	24. 1945: Denmark's letters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: This is about WW2 and I talk about Nazism, so offensive and sentitive topics.
> 
> Again more basic things about WW2 and Denmark's implication in the war. I think I've talked about this enough to have to explain it again. I think every historical reference is easy to understand in this chapter.
> 
> Also, I should call this fanfic mostly Denmark in WW2 one shots, sorry for that, it just inspires me.
> 
> If you're curious, I'm going to create a new fanfic kind of about this.
> 
> Last thing, I'm not going to write about Nazi Germany in a worse way than in this chapter because I don't want to make chapters of just human suffering. I just want to say that that period of history was horrible and I don't want us to forget about it, but I also don't want to use it for fun, so I went with the softiest thing, Denmark. Sorry again if I offend someone

Denmark's POV

I was in my room with Norway, we were scared to leave the house, even though no one had seen Germany in a month. None of us knew where she was, and it was impossible to even leave the building. Norway and I had been talking for a while, just enjoying each other's company. We were on my bed, discussing our situation.

“I'm thirsty” I said.

“Go get some water” Norway said.

“Can you get it for me? Please?” I said trying to sound cute.

“Okaaaaay.”

He got up and went out of the room. Suddenly I heard something in the closet, like something had hit its door. I got up to see if something had hit it, and indeed I found a little rock on the floor. A shadow appeared on the floor, showing that someone was behind me.

“I'm not going to hurt you, but you must close the door and not let anyone see me” I heard as a quiet whisper.

“Tyskland…”

“Please.”

I closed the door a bit loudly, because I was shaking. 

“Danmark?” Norway called me, a little confused.

He had a huge reason to worry, he just didn't know that.

“No one can see me, I'm already risking my life by coming here.”

I couldn't believe it, Germany was begging me, that sounded insane.

“I'm naked, please don't come in” I said loudly.

“We've been together for centuries, is there something wrong?”

“Please, Nor.”

“Okay.”

I finally had the courage to turn around and face her. Her clothes were broken, and looked dull. She honestly looked like a homeless person, I wasn't used to see her without her uniform, her armband, her style… She looked like a broken version of what she had been back in the 19th century. She was looking at me like most people did, I couldn't see love in her eyes.

“Where have you been?” I whispered, not sure why I was doing as she had said.

“Around, I must hide from everyone.”

“Who are you exactly hiding from?”

She looked terrified for a second, thinking the exact words to tell me.

“I'm scared of myself, of both selves actually. I don't know where one ends and the other starts, I just know they are too connected.”

“What?”

Of course, Germany didn't answer me. I hated when she spoke like that.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“I'm sorry.”

“For what?”

I didn't understand why she was sorry, she was too proud to ever apologize or regret anything. She grabbed her almost broken bag and emptied on my bed. Dozens of letters fell onto it.

“I lied to you, Iceland has been sending you letters from the start of the war. You haven't gotten any, because they gave everything directly to me.”

“So you talked to them?”

“Only "hello you fucking fascist, here you have another letter I know you're going to burn" "okay, Piece of Ice, you're very nice".”

I laughed at that comment, it sounded very Icelandic. 

I catched one and realized they had already been opened. While reading it, I felt like reality had just fallen down and hit me. The letter was about a random story, but it also reflected my situation. Iceland talked about missing me. Some words were deformed, like drops had fallen on top of it. It wasn't such a sad letter to make Iceland cry over it. 

“Why are you giving them to me?” I asked.

“I wanted to fix this and make you feel happier.”

I started to read another one, ignoring her.

“Denmark, I need your help.”

Of course she did.

“I'm not going to help you.”

“Hold op med at lyve.”

I looked to her, surprised to hear my language coming from her mouth. It was obvious she didn't know how to actually pronounce it, but she still tried.

“Give this to Soviet if I don't get to him before, he'll need it” then she handed me another letter, this one was closed.

“What is it?”

“Something peaceful.”

I didn't believe her, she obviously wanted to destroy the Russian nation. 

“Du solltest mir vertrauen. Ich würde dich nicht anlügen... nicht mehr.” 

She left the letter on top of my bed, and proceeded to jump out of the window. I stayed there, alone. 

“Norway, please come in.”

He did, staring at all of those letters.

“I'll explain later, now we need to read this” I said while grabbing and opening the last letter that had been given to me. “Fuck.”

It was in Russian, I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was. But I was expecting it to be in German.

“Do you know if Germany owns an English to Russian dictionary?” I asked.

“I think she has a German-Russian one.”

“Let's get it, we'll probably understand something.”

We went to the living room, and approached the book shelf carefully, like if someone could scare us coming out of the furniture.

“Why are there so many dictionaries?” I asked surprised.

“I hadn't heard of some of these languages before” Norway was as confused as me.

Norway found the one we were looking for and gave it to me. There was a paper inside the book, it was a handwritten text.

"Ist es möglich die echte Wahrheit zu finden? Oder ändert es sich immer wenn wir von einer anderen Perspektive darüber nachdenken…?"

“I feel like I should understand this” I said.

“It looks philosophical.”

We started looking for the words on the letter, but they weren't in the book.

“Maybe it's not Russian.”

We didn't understand anything, what did that mean?

_Хелоу, йу ноу ху ай ам, йоур лайар. Ай хаф а вери импортант мессаж фор йу. Ай'м бегин йу, плис рид дис, йу маст…_

“Norge, something insane happened, Germany came.”

”No way! Why didn't you let me in?“

”She said I couldn't.“

I explained to him what happened, but he didn't look shocked like me, instead, he looked terrified.

”I must read Iceland's letters now.“

He grabbed my wrist, stopping me from getting up.

”That's all? You don't wonder why she came here? Why she went away? Where she's staying? Why she hasn't hurt us? I have so many questions.“

”I do too, but when I'm with her, I go soft, I can't go against her. I guess this is caused by the occupation.“

”No, it's not, that only happens to you, the rest of us are just scared. I'm afraid of what this means to you.“

”What do you mean?“

I didn't like where that conversation was going.

”How many of your Jews did she kill?“

”Well…“

”Answer me.“

I gulped, refusing to look at him.

”I myself can't talk much, but comparing you with the rest hurts. Why?“

I didn't speak, I didn't know what to say.

”You know, I love you, but I feel like you love her more than me.“

I felt like I had just been stabbed, those words hurt more than any weapon.

”I want to be alone, so don't follow me“ he said while walking away.

I was by myself, with a letter in a language that I didn't understand in my hands. I felt my eyes starting to sting, wondering if he was right or not. My left arm hurt, like that piece of clothing I had to wear were heavier than it actually was. I went back to my room and started reading Iceland's letters. Most of them were texts about how worried they were. I found one that was different, it was like a conversation between two people. I didn't recognize the other handwriting, I checked if it was Germany's but it didn't look like her gothic letters. They talked about… Hong Kong?

_Haha, I stole this letter and now I'm going to read it! But now I'm interested, who are you and why are you angry at Hong Kong?_

It was an interesting, yet strange conversation, not even Iceland knew who this person was. In the middle there were some personal things and I had the feeling that letter wasn't for me. But Germany was too efficient to make a mistake like this. I read another letter that just said:

_I miss you._

I couldn't help but think about where I had been, what I had done. Had I been a Nazi collaborator? Had I had another choice? I closed my eyes, not knowing how to shut myself up. It was in this exact moment when I realized the image I had had of Germany was just my point of view, that she wasn't someone who treated other nations badly. She treated me nicely, that was the strange thing. She treated the rest with repression and death, I had just been her little toy to take care of. I shivered thinking how many people had fallen. No, they didn't fall, they were killed. Millions of people were killed. I hadn't fought because I was scared, I had hidden behind my race to stay alive. But what did that make me? 

Was I a hero to my people for keeping them alive? Because Copenhagen was still standing? Or was I a coward who surrended in six hours?

I had to stop asking myself so many questions. I looked for a sheet of paper, throwing everything to the ground. I found a small one, and wrote "kom her, hun er væk". I folded it ane wrote "Iceland". I wasn't scared anymore, it was worth the risk. I threw the small letter out if the window, hoping someone would find it and give it to Iceland.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tyskland (Danish) = Germany
> 
> Danmark (Norwegian) = Denmark
> 
> Du solltest mir vertrauen. Ich würde dich nicht anlügen... nicht mehr (German) = You should trust me. I wouldn't lie to you… not anymore.
> 
> Ist es möglich die echte Wahrheit zu finden? Oder ändert es sich immer wenn wir von einer anderen Perspektive darüber nachdenken? (German) = Is it possible to find the real truth? Or does it change depending on the perspective?
> 
> Kom her, hun er væk (Danish) = Come here, she's gone


	25. 1947: Cold night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WW1 was called "the war to end all wars" because they thought it would be the last conflict. It wasn't.
> 
> WW2 ended in 1945. After that, tensions between the Allies increased. They had unified to defeat the Axis, but that was all. It was mostly about the United States of America and the Soviet Union, who would lead to a new kind of conflict with the Cold War.
> 
> The Faroe Islands don't have an army of their own, only Denmark's. Estonia back in this time was one of the Soviet socialist republics of the Soviet Union. Every SSR had their own official language, but Russian was official too in all of them.
> 
> Russian is written in cyrillic alphabet and I'm aware that the "Russian" in the letter is pretty wrong written, but that's for the plot. By the way, it's written not like the actual handwriting, but as the letters that can be found on books.

Faroe's POV

I went to the kitchen, I was hungry, although it was very late. It was 3 am, but I had woken up for some reason I wasn't aware of. The house was very dark, but it didn't matter because I didn't need light to find the kitchen, I knew exactly where it was. I was walking through the living room when I heard something move. I stopped moving, hoping that whatever that was would ignore me. I felt like my heart was about to explode from fear. There were some powerless nations, and I was one of them.

“What?” I heard Denmark say.

“You scared me!”

I turned on the light, and I saw she was laying down on the couch with a sheet of paper in her hands. She let it go to cover her eyes from the brightness. I left her groaning while I grabbed some cookies from the kitchen. I ended up sitting next to her, waiting for an explanation.

“Really, what do you want?” she asked.

“I was hungry, what the hell are you doing here?”

“I couldn't sleep, so I came here and questioned life's meaning.”

“I woke up, so I went to eat some food. Isn't that more logical?”

“Maybe.”

She just stared at the wall in front of her, without saying anything.

“Do you remember when we were vikings?”

That question shocked me a little.

“Of course I do. Why?”

“I just miss those times.”

She didn't say anything after that. I continued eating cookies, they were really good. I took the letter from her and tried to read it.

“It's useless, it's in Russian and I don't understand anything.”

I continued reading like I understood something when some words caught my mind. 

“Denmark, are you sure it's Russian?”

“It looks very Russian to me. Just look at those letters, it's definitely not Danish.”

“No, look at this” I said, pointing to some words.

“What?”

It said "невер форгет ми". It definitely looked Russian, but something was off.

“Hebep fopget mn” she read.

“You read the f and the g like that because of Greek, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, I remember a little of Ancient Greek.”

”Maybe the letter we think is a p is actually an r, just like in Greek.“

She stopped to think for a moment.

”Heber forget mn?“

We looked at each other for a moment.

”Is this English but hidden with Russian alphabet?“ she said.

”Maybe. It definitely looks like a "never forget me".“

”We need someone who can read cyrillic.“

I wasn't sure if that was a good idea, that note wasn't meant for us to read and spending time trying to write with another alphabet to hide your text… That meant it wasn't a stupid message, it was important.

”Or you could just let it go. The war is over, you should get rid of that“ I tried to convince her to let it go.

”And what should I do with it, according to you?“

”Forget it, and get on with your life. We need to face the future just in case something else happens.“

She looked unsure of what I had just said.

”Now there's going to be peace, we don't have to be afraid of anything.“

”Yeah sure. Like the "war to end all wars". Except another war broke out twenty years later.“

”Okay, true.“

”Just… Talk to me about something else.“

”I thought about inviting Norway to come here next week or something.“

”That's great, how is he doing?“

”He's now doing better, and we've got our ups and downs, as always.“

”But you two will be together until the end of the world.“

She smiled, with that happiness you only feel when in love. They had always brought love and happiness to the Nordic home, and I missed seeing them together.

”I'll go get a beer“ she said, getting on her feet.

”I'm going for a walk.“

”Yeah, sure.“

I went to my room to put some actual clothes on, and before reaching the main door, I turned to take a last look at the living room. The letter was laying sadly on the couch. Denmark wasn't anywhere in sight, so I took the note and hid it in my coat's pocket. I left the house very quickly, and when I met the cold wind, I realized I wasn't wearing really warm clothes. I had thought of going to the South, so my clothes weren't too appropriate for what I had just decided to do. 

I stared at the envelope and its "to Sowjetunion". It was 4 in the morning more or less. The weather felt nice from a Faroese perspective, but I felt a cold feeling inside of me. It was impossible to know if I was doing something right or fucking everything up. I started going East, meeting asleep houses without any lights on. It was quiet, except for the sound the chilly wind made. I stood still when I saw a huge building with a red flag waving from it. I asked myself how many people lived in it, I really didn't know. I just knew all those republics had the same flag but with different color stripes, but again, who was I to say anything? Just a Nordic with a Nordic cross. The cold feeling wouldn't go away, but I knew it was weird, I could just feel something cold was coming.

There was somene walking around, so I approached them. I didn't know what to say to not sound suspicious, so I decided to just tell the truth.

”Hi“ I said.

Estonia turned to look at me, looking so scary with his military uniform. Well, maybe no one else thought he was scary, but armies terrify me a little.

”Hi Faroe, what are you doing here so early?“

”I have a letter for Soviet Union, I thought I'd bring it to him as soon as possible.“

It was impossible to understand the look on his face.

”Well, he's sleeping.“

”Of course…“

There was an awkward silence between us and I just stared at his necklace. The symbol on his flag was so difficult to see because of how small it was, I wondered why that was. Little worker's tools, that could even look cute if I didn't hate them so much.

”Well, can you let me in or deliver it to him yourself?“

”How important is it? We have a lot of things to worry about already.“

He was very defensive, he thought I was a threat.

”It's in cyrillic alphabet, I don't understand anything.“

”How did you write it then?“

I switched my weight to my right leg, tired of just standing there in the cold. 

”I didn't write it and, no offense, but you don't have to be so defensive. I know you're patrolling, but it's just me.“

”I'm not patrolling.“

He was definitely patrolling.

”Just listen to me“ I said.

”I really don't understand why it's so important if you're not even telling me who wrote it.“

”It was ended with… something like…“ I stopped to remember. ”It was an H, an E, a B, an E and a P.“

”Eh.“

”A Greek F, an O, P, Greek G, E and T again. Then M with a reverse N.“

Estonia's eyes turned to look to a side, while he was thinking about the dentence I had just said to him.

”That's not Russian, it sounds… English?“

And then I was ready to deliver the final bomb.

”It was signed with a reverse N with something on top, an O, a Y and a P. And finally something that was like a Greek P, an A, a reverse R and a P.“

”That would be… "your payar"? Oh, "your liar"!“

Estonia looked shocked for a moment, like he had just realized something very important.

”Who gave this to you!?“

”Germany wrote it.“

He was panicking, I didn't understand why he was like that, I thought it was an overreaction.

”At the end of the war?“

How…? I knew he'd react someway special, but I wasn't expecting that.

“The last days, as far as I know.”

“Okay come with me.”

He walked towards the entrance, I was a bit scared to follow him, but I still did. Estonia opened the door very loudly, it bothered even me. The cold feeling inside of me got way stronger, I even got goosebumps.

“Что за хуйня происходит?!?” Armenia appeared wearing her pajamas.

She had ran to see what had caused that noise, and then saw me. I guessed I was disappointing.

“Это важно” Estonia said.

“Я спала.”

“Что ж, ты уже проснулась.”

I couldn't tell if she was angry at him and hated him or was just upset because he had woken her. Armenia went away, groaning. 

“Now I feel bad” I muttered.

“Don't. I'll go wake up Soviet, just wait here.”

“Sure.”

He walked through the hallway and I just stayed there, thinking about what I was doing there. It seemed dangerous, for some reason. I stared at everything I could stare at. 

Not long after that, I heard loud footsteps approaching. Soviet Union looked extremely serious, his walking rhythm was steady. His clothes were formal enough, with military boots and a belt with a star. I didn't understand why, we were finally at peace, but I could feel tension in the air everywhere.

I had never talked to him directly and he was very tall. I thought he was the most imposing country I had ever met. USSR stood in front of me, with Estonia at his side. I felt like I needed to start the conversation myself, but I was shaking with fear. Maybe Denmark hadn't given him the letter for some important reason and I was there to do whatever I thought was right. I took a deep breath and started talking.

“Hello, sorry to bother you so early, but I think I own an important document that belongs to you. I'm Faroe Islands, a Danish territory.”

“I suppose you already know me, but I'm Soviet Union. Nice to meet you, Faroe.”

I smiled, still shaking. Aaaaa he was scary.

“Please explain the whole situation to me.”

I explained everything Denmark had told me with every detail I remembered.

“So I thought you should have it, because it was written for you” I said, showing him the letter.

I looked at it, one last time, staring at the name "Reich", the sender. Germany had never refered to herself as only that, or that's what I thought.

“Thank you, this is very important to me” said Soviet Union grabbing the letter from my hand.

He was shaking too, and for some reason that calmed me down a little. Because we were both nervous, I felt more calm. But he was way better at pretending to feel safe than me. And he only started shaking after I first mentioned Germany and when that letter had been given to Denmark.

I didn't know what to say or do next, I did want to know what the letter said, but it was useless to try. Not only that, it was also a violation of privacy.

“Do you want to eat or drink something, Faroe?” Estonia asked me.

I nodded and followed him to the kitchen. I didn't even want anything, but I wanted to run away from that scene.

“Estonia, I don't really want anything” I said shyly.

“It's okay, I just think Soviet needs to me alone while reading that.”

I sat on a chair, burying my face in my hands, yawning. Estonia did get some cookies for himself.

“So, how have you been doing?” I asked, sitting more properly.

“Longing for peace.”

“I'm starting to think that maybe it won't come.”

“Probably not.”

A clock on the wall proved it was 7:04 am in Moscow. The situation couldn't be more awkward. Suddenly Soviet Union came to the room, took a bootle of vodka and left. His eyes looked red, like he was about to cry.

“Do you want me to take you home?” Estonia said.

“Sure.”

He cleared his throat before screaming.

“Я вернусь через час!”

No one answered, but I was sure everyone was awake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Что за хуйня происходит? (Russian) = What the fuck is going on?
> 
> Это важно (Russian) = This is important.
> 
> Я спала (Russian) = I was sleeping.
> 
> Что ж, ты уже проснулась (Russian) = Well, now you're awake.
> 
> Я вернусь через час (Russian) = I'll be back in an hour.


End file.
